Kanika Dhillon, the writer for critically acclaimed films such as Manmarziyaan, Judgemental Hai Kya and most recently, Kiara Advani starrer Guilty recently said that she wanted to leave the industry because she was harassed and propositioned early in her career.  

In a recent interview with News18, Kanika opened up about the inequality she faced, "Forget the paycheck, there were times when I started that I wanted to leave this industry and go. I was harassed; I was propositioned; I was made to feel that the only way I’m good enough is to have a happy face around; I was made to feel that I’m being kept around because I was easy on the eyes. Since I have been made to feel so unworthy because of my sex, I hit back harder, and today, I want to charge the maximum that I can. Today, I’m amongst the highest-paid writers in the industry because that’s where I wanted to be. And that is something I promised myself because I was made to feel victimised, harassed and not good enough," she said. 

Kanika also said that men refuse to attribute a woman's success to her talent, "Across the world and especially in India, men refuse to acknowledge that a woman is doing well in her life because of her talent. Somehow the first thing that they’ll say is, ‘Oh, has she slept her way up?’ I feel that the men who gossip like this, they do it in real life. They think that sleeping their way up is a great way to do it, hence you are projecting it on other people’s success and validating the other person’s position,” she said. “So next time when you hear a man of this industry, cracking a joke that ‘I think this woman is sleeping her way up,’ immediately know that this man is a predator. And, this judgment is something that women face across the world. Men judge them more because they get very insecure and scared," Kanika added. 

On the work front, Kanika, along with Atika Chohan and director Ruchi Narain, wrote the story of Guilty around the central character Nanki. In the film, Nanki’s boyfriend is accused of rape.