National Award winning actress Shweta Prasad was trapped in a sting operation by a Telugu news channel recently which exposed how she sold her body to sustain her family. There's a huge outcry on how the businessmen who paid her money ought to be exposed and how she was a victim.
The recent arrest of Shweta Basu Prasad for prostitution has caused unease in the southern film industry, as her interrogation is likely to reveal the names of more heroines allegedly involved in a high-profile flesh trade racket.
“There are fears among some of the actresses of Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam movies regarding what Shweta could reveal. The information could damage their reputation,” S.M. Swamy, a leading Chennai-based casting director, said.
Meanwhile, there has been outrage over the fact that the influential clients of Shweta are reportedly being shielded in the case.
Incidentally, Shweta is not the first actress in the South to be caught by the police in a prostitution racket.
A Bangalore-based actress Yamuna, who had worked with top actors in Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam movies, was also caught red-handed by the police at a hotel in Bangalore in 2011.
In her heyday, the actress enjoyed superstar status and worked in more than 50 movies, some of them blockbusters.
In 2010, two Telugu film actresses, Saira Banu and Jyothi, were arrested for their role in a similar prostitution racket. They were later released on bail. Not much has been heard about the Telugu actresses since then.
Another Telugu actress, Sravani, was nabbed by the police last year in Madhapur for similar charges.
In 2009, Tamil film actress Bhuvaneshwari was arrested in Chennai for allegedly running a prostitution racket.
The status of the probe into these cases is not known.
