Following the release of a redacted version of the Hema Committee report on issues faced by women in Malayalam cinema, critics questioned why the affected women hadn't reported their concerns to the police if the situation was so bad.
The report itself says this was a question asked by many men they interviewed. The revelations made by the women before the Committee were about criminal offences that could be charged under the Indian Penal Code. The atrocities faced by them also fell under the Sexual Harassment at the Work Place (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act or the POSH Act in short. Yet, the women mostly chose to be silent.
The report offers an explanation of why this happens. Women do not “ordinarily rush to the police in case of any sexual harassment because of various reasons.” Women in cinema may be even more reluctant to go to the police since they are public figures who would then be dragged into controversies and be subjected to cyber attacks, the report notes.
To apprehend the truth of this, one needs to only turn back a few years, to 2017, when the sexual assault on a female actor in a car in Kochi rocked the entire state. The survivor’s decision to go to the police turned the film industry topsy-turvy, pushing many changes, not to the liking of the high and mighty of Malayalam cinema. Until then no one had dared to speak out about the harassment they face, even to members of the family, let alone the police. But for all that bravado, she received more brickbats than bouquets through the years. Despite being a survivor of brutal abuse, she continues to face cyber abuse – her every act, every smile and gesture are judged by thousands of strangers lurking on the internet, thinking it their right to call her names. All because she showed the courage to speak out about sexual harassment, to go to the police – the one reaction her abusers had not seen coming, for such has been the shame associated with being a victim of rape.
The case had a ripple effect on the workings of Malayalam cinema – the formation of the Women in Cinema Collective (WCC), which championed the cause of women and the formation of the Hema Committee to probe the issues in the sector. The report revealed that sexual harassment is the major issue that women face in the industry, and yet there are only few instances were cases have been registered.
Before the 2017 incident of actor abduction and rape, actor Parvathy Thiruvothu had revealed in an interview that ‘casting couch’ (euphemism for sexual favours demanded of women for work opportunities) was a reality in Malayalam cinema, and everybody knew about it. She was mercilessly trolled for it, by naysayers who wanted to equate the world of Malayalam cinema to paradise, where angels danced and flowers bloomed and nothing could ever go wrong.
Support for the accused men in every such case would grow in such big numbers that you’d wonder if the roles had somehow reversed when you were asleep and the victim is now somehow the villain of the story.
In recent years, more women have shown the courage to approach the police. In March 2022, film director Liju Krishna (who made Padavettu) was arrested after a woman who worked with him filed a case of rape. He came out on bail in less than a month while she ended up in a hospital with deteriorating health conditions. Her demand that the alleged abuser be not credited when the movie came out was also rejected.
At the time, she said through a Facebook post that she had no place to complain within the film set where they both worked. It was after this that Internal Committees -- compulsory as part of the POSH Act -- began to be formed in sets. The WCC had fought relentlessly for ICs.
However, the Hema Committee report reveals that even ICs are of not much use as they are easily influenced by a powerful lobby of men who control everything in the film industry. It is this lobby that drives women, and men too, into prolonged silences. They fear not only losing work but feel they would be endangering their lives and that of their family members.
The IC, formed belatedly in the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA), was rendered ineffective within days, as it failed to take any action against the rape-accused actor-producer Vijay Babu. It was In April 2022, that a woman went to the police with allegations of rape against him. He had at first come out on a Facebook video, refuting the allegations, but also naming her in the process, and breaking the law. Vijay Babu went absconding in a foreign country for days before ensuring a pre-arrest bail and making his appearance.
By then the survivor received the usual round of victim-blaming, worse in this case since she had admitted to initially entering into a relationship with him believing his promises of film offers and marriage. But when she wanted to end the relationship, he blackmailed her and assaulted her, she alleged. Among the critics of the woman was also senior actor Mallika Sukumaran who asked in an interview why the woman went to him again and again after the first instance of assault.
Going to the police did not exactly help any of these women. The men would come out on bail in a matter of weeks or less, and the women are subjected to vicious online attacks. This is not to say women should stop going to the police but to understand the toll it takes on them. Apart from the online abuse, there would also be the direct reproaches and countless humiliations they encounter in person at the hands of their own people, for such is the stigma associated with sexual harassment. Even in the Hema Committee report, one of the panel members, yesteryear actor Sarada, frowns upon the choice of clothing of the women these days, resorting to the familiar game of victim-shaming that women all over the world are accustomed to.
This isn’t a region-specific problem, it is all too universal. The Harvey Weinsteins of this world assure such silences that women have to give everything they have to break. Bravo to the women in Malayalam cinema, who deposed before the Justice Hema Committee calling out powerful men and brought the injustice to light so powerfully.