With a serious and calm demeanour, different from his habitual sarcasm, actor Siddique, the general secretary of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists, said on Friday, August 23, that the organisation welcomes the Hema Committee report that was released five days earlier, about the issues concerning women in the Malayalam film industry.
Blaming a stage show that the organisation had been holding for the delayed response, Siddique said that A.M.M.A. has never been against the publication of the Hema Committee report, nor had it pushed for the release. “The report is not against A.M.M.A., even though it has been mentioned in parts. Women in Malayalam cinema are mostly our members. So the issues concerning them will concern us also, and the recommendations made by the Committee will be useful to them. We want the recommendations to be implemented,” Siddique said.
He was flanked by Vice President Jayan R and committee members Jomol, Ananya and Vinu Mohan. Siddique, who did most of the talking, blamed the media for portraying A.M.M.A. as an accused in the report. The major issue identified by the Hema Committee is the sexual harassment that women in the industry face at the workplace, even before a film shooting begins.
Siddique however preferred to call it a few one-off incidents and said that the whole industry should not be shamed for it. He denied the existence of the “power group” that according to the Committee calls the shots in the industry.
“Whoever the accused are, let the police take action against them. We did not realise all of this was happening, until we read the report,” Siddique said about the incidents of sexual harassment.
While claiming that no complaint of sexual harassment was made to the organisation, he spoke about an email that was received in 2018 concerning an incident in 2006, adding that he had somehow missed it for so long.
About forming an IC – an idea he ridiculed in a press meet in 2018 – Siddique said that it depended on the producer of a film, and A.M.M.A. as an organisation, could not interfere.
‘I have not faced sexual harassment’: Jomol
Actor Jomol, who was present with Siddique, professed ignorance about any such incidents of sexual harassment taking place in Malayalam cinema. An actor who began working as a child, Jomol has played noticeable roles in the 1990s and won awards for her performance in Ente Janaki Kutty. Pointing this out, she said that she too had won an award but was not acting in movies now, so it could not be true that a prominent woman actor was kept away because she refused to toe the line. Jomol meant Parvathy Thiruvothu, who along with other members of the Women in Cinema Collective (WCC), have steadily lost opportunities at work since they spoke out about issues in the industry. However, Jomol’s absence from movies was a choice she made, while those like Parvathy were denied opportunities because they spoke out.
Following the A.M.M.A press meet, WCC representative Deedi Damodaran responded to this saying, “[Jomol] has every right to comment on her journey. She may not have been attacked by anyone. But it is good if a person would enquire about their fellow beings too. A film showcasing the state of women in Malayalam cinema has been made — Lekhayude Maranam Oru Flashback. Several women artistes have died by suicide. If they have some awareness of history, people like Jomol should ask why those women died. When it is being said that Lekhayude Maranam Oru Flashback is based on true events, it would be nice for them to find out the truth about it.”
‘Shouldn’t ask if it happens elsewhere, must act’: Jagadish
Jagadish, veteran actor and another vice president of AMMA, spoke to the media from another venue, advocating the need to probe every incident of sexual harassment, no matter how many have been reported. “We cannot reduce it to a one-off incident and not act on it. It should be investigated. We should also not ask questions like, does it not happen in every other field of work. It has now happened in our field and we should act on it,” Jagadish said.
He also said that names of the accused should come out, if the Court allows it, for it is only the names of the survivors that should be protected. “Let the names come out, otherwise there will be gossip and guesses made on who it is and that will be wrong.”
While Jagadish also denied the existence of a “power group”, calling it a decorative term, he acknowledged that Justice Hema must have meant an influential group that could control what happens in Malayalam cinema. Without feigning ignorance like many others in the film fraternity including actor Siddique, Jagadish said that women would have faced casting couch (euphemism for sexual harassment) since they have stated so before the Committee.
The delay in the publication of the report would have cost the industry a lot, he said. “If these issues had come out five years ago, things might have improved a lot by now. But now we do know there are organisations and committees and the public who will raise these questions. So that fear will be there [for the perpetrators],” Jagadish said.