Karan, Irrfan condemn photojournalist's gangrape

Condemning the brutal gangrape of a young photojournalist here, filmmaker Karan Johar today said he felt ashamed when he heard about the incident while asserting that it's unfair to attack cinema or item songs for such social maladies.
The 23-year-old scribe was allegedly gangraped by five men yesterday near Shakti Mills in Lower Parel area of the metropolis when she was on an assignment, doing a story on city chawls. The woman's male colleague was thrashed by the accused in the desolate mill compound before they assaulted her.
"When I heard about this I felt helpless. Words like devastated, disgusted mean nothing at a time like this..I feel ashamed. This gives a feeling of insecurity," Karan Johar told reporters here at an event.

"More power to the media as they are policing the governance by constantly talking about it. By this, it can be curbed or limited if not stopped completely. If I had the solution to his, I would have been the front runner for it," he said.
Echoing similar sentiments, actor Irrfan Khan called such crimes are the result of a complex problem.
"One must look at the complexity of the problem. Bombay is comparatively a safe city but it (rape cases) will grow more and more because of the way the system is handling it. I think it doesn't give you a good sign. Till the time we are sympathetic to the creature (women) and do not respect her, I think it will continue to happen. There is censorship today but what kind of censorship...Women are used as a product," he said.

On films and item songs being put under the scanner for such heinous crimes, Karan said "I think cinema is the safest target. Cinema even projects traditional value system, family system why is that not emulated?.... Why blame item songs or cinema for what is happening in society? Why we must be on the radar"?
"In my films, I would never cross the lines of decency. Why cinema is always attacked for whatever happens in the society?..The issue needs to be addressed (holistically)," he said.