Hema Committee: Stormy times ahead for Mollywood

Sexual Harassment is unfortunately a rampant practice in most industries, including the film industry. Over the last few years, activism against sexual harassment and exploitation against women has been very strong in Kerala. This has been due to Dileep, who abducted a prominent actress few years ago and abused her.

Many actresses of Mollywood mobilized in solidarity with the actress in question, demanding for reforms in the system to make their film industry a safer place for women. These events collided with the globally prominent Me-Too back then, thus strengthening the collective voices of the aggrieved. There were also a few fake complaints. The bottomline is, even if the victims could not get legal solutions for their traumatic and unjust ordeals, the accused in question definitely had their image damaged in public due to the informal naming-and-shaming protocols characteristic of the Me-Too movement.

But, a recent move from the court of law brought this pernicious issue to the forefront all over again. The Justice Hema Committee report, which detailed the rot of sexual harassment in the Malayalam film industry, has shaken things up in Kerala and also the nation. Eye-opening revelations about the prevalence of abuse came out in the report. After this report came out, more and more actresses are coming forward with accusations.

Actress Revathi Sampath had accused prominent Malayalam actor Siddique of rape, while Bengali actress Srilekha Mitra accused director Ranjith Balakrishnan of indecent behaviour. What sets these two accusations apart their precedents in the past is that both Siddique and Ranjith have now resigned from their top posts at the Malayalam Movie Artists Association & the Kerala Film Board respectively. This is quite rare. It shows that these accusations are not only serious, but things are going to change a lot from now on.