Director Groomed Me As Sex Slave: Actress Sowmya

The Me-too revelations are rocking the Malayalam film industry. There is a flood of rape and sexual allegations and as a part of it, a Tamil actress Sowmya came out divulging her horrific experiences at the beginning of her career.

Actress Sowmya acted in three Malayalam films and a Tamil movie in the 90s. Sowmya during her sensational interview with NDTV revealed that she was ‘groomed as a sex slave’ by the director whose name she did not want to reveal at the moment. Sowmya said the director and his wife approached her when she was 18 years old.

Sowmya says she was initially mentioned as a daughter fondly and later the same man declared he wanted a child with her. Sowmya wants to reveal the man’s identity to the special police team formed by the Kerala government.

She said that her family had been forced into allowing her to act saying they had spent large amounts of money on her screen test.

Sowmya said, ‘The director couple was nice to me with good food and milkshakes initially and that was the grooming process. One fine day, when his wife wasn’t around, this man kissed me and I completely froze. I could not tell my friends as I was ashamed. So I continued going for dance rehearsals and step by step, this man completely used my body to his advantage. At some point he forced himself on me, so he raped me. This went on for close to a year while I was in college.’

Rape and assault allegations against senior Malayalam actors and film directors have been pouring in since the Justice Hema Committee report was released last month.