Indian Actress Stages a Topless Me Too Protest

There was no shortage of television cameras when Sri Reddy, an Indian film actress, took off her top.

Ms. Reddy, a middling star in central India, announced on Saturday that she was staging a protest against sexual harassment in the Indian film industry, one of the bolder #MeToo-type moments that the country has seen.

She marched up to the offices of a film commission, stripped half-naked and stood there glaring at a bank of cameras, hands covering her breasts.

“Are we girls, or things to play with?” she asked.

She was then whisked off by the police to face possible charges of public nudity.

India makes more movies than anywhere else. Bollywood and its smaller cousins (such as Mollywood, Tollywood and Gollywood — all named after the areas where the films are shot or the languages they use) represent a hugely influential industry.

Deepa Narayan, a social scientist who has recently published a book on how women are treated in India, said Ms. Reddy might face problems. “The first thing that happens when a woman in India takes a bold move, she is dismissed,” Ms. Narayan said.

That seems to have already begun. Some actors have taken swipes at Ms. Reddy, accusing her of staging the protest just to bolster her career, an accusation that she has rejected.