Actor-politician Radikaa Sarathkumar has said that the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing allegations of sexual harassment made in the Hema Committee report only wanted a clarification from her when they reached out to her earlier this week. Speaking at a press conference on September 3 Radikaa said, “The SIT called me four days back. I first offered them my praise and told them they are working fast. Then they asked about the incident and whether it truly happened. I told them it did.”
“There’s no complaint, so they have nothing to investigate. They just wanted a clarification that the incident happened,” Radikaa added.
On August 31 Radikaa spoke out about coming across men watching footage of women changing their clothes, shot on cameras hidden in the women’s caravans of a Malayalam film set. She however refused to name the film. Many have tried to ascertain this information as the actor-politician has worked mostly in Kollywood and has done only 10 Malayalam films so far—of which the last three are alongside prime accused in the actor assault case Dileep and former A.M.M.A. president Mohanlal.
Addressing the question, Radikaa said in her press meet, “Mohanlal asked me ‘Ayyo, did this happen on my set?’ but I told him I don’t want to say whether it was on his set or someone else’s. But no big artists were on set.” In an interview to News 18 Tamil, Radikaa had defended both Mohanlal and Dileep saying, “Both of them looked after me very well and decently. Those involved [in the incident] were some other people from the unit.”
In her September 3 press meet, Radikaa further said that protecting women dancers, secondary actors and other artists was the responsibility of the film’s production company. She also said that they were answerable for providing proper changing facilities and safe accommodations for these women.
The actor-politician also claimed that she had asked Nassar, who serves as the president of South Indian Artistes’ Association (popularly known as the Nadigar Sangam), to start a strong committee. “I told him, ‘Include a police officer or a lawyer in the committee. It should give the sense of security that action will be taken if the committee is approached’.”
Radikaa further added, “Men always ask, ‘Why are you talking about this after 5 years’ or ‘ten years’. Who can actually know what trauma the woman has been through in those five years? Or how much she may have struggled without being able to find work? How many burdens are women bearing in each industry, whether it’s a cook or a well-known chef or someone in a big IT company? In an IT company, you have an HR department. Similarly, we [Tamil cinema industry] have to create a high-level HR department with trustworthy people.”
The actor-politician also spoke about an incident of sexual misconduct she was witness to. Radikaa alleged that a “famous [male] actor” harassed a woman actor in an inebriated state. She added that her husband and actor Sarathkumar had also been present and had asked her not to intervene. Radikaa went on to say that however she did intervene and berated the drunk actor. She further said that she’d had similar experiences of multiple younger women actors seeking refuge with her when they felt uncomfortable to be on the sets on their own.
“What I find disappointing is that I’ve seen so many men do wrong, but society puts those men on a pedestal and celebrates them. Every heroine has a story to tell. I know that,” Radikaa said, adding, “Wherever in the world something goes wrong, people blame only the woman. Whether it is Chinmayi or anyone else, it is the women who are blamed. Does anyone ever blame the men? The question everyone is asking me is on which actor’s set did the incident happen. That’s all you’re interested in. No one is talking about how to solve this problem.”