After maintaining a conspicuous silence for 12 days following the release of the Justice Hema Committee report, superstar Mammootty said in a Facebook post that he welcomed the report and that the court should decide the appropriate punishment. Mammootty’s response came on Sunday, September 1, a day after Mohanlal met the media and spoke on the report, which exposed the systemic misogyny and sexual harassment in the Malayalam film industry.
In his post, Mammootty expressed his support for the Hema Committee report and welcomed its recommendations and solutions, while simultaneously asserting that “there is no power group in the film industry,” despite the report's findings suggesting otherwise. Claiming that cinema is not the kind of field in which such a power group can exist, he echoed Mohanlal's sentiments about the industry's survival. “Ultimately, the film industry must survive,” he wrote in his concluding statement.
Stating that he was waiting for the actors’ association and its leadership to respond before sharing his own thoughts as a member (of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists aka A.M.M.A.), the actor said, “Cinema is a cross-section of society. All of society’s good and bad are present in cinema too. But the film industry is also closely observed by society, which is why every small and big thing that happens there becomes a major subject of discussion.” He added that people in the film industry should be careful and vigilant to ensure that nothing untoward happened around them.
Certain incidents that never should have happened have transpired in the film industry, which was what led the government to establish the Justice Hema Committee to study the industry and provide recommendations, Mammootty said. “All of the committee's proposed solutions and recommendations are wholeheartedly welcomed and will be supported. This is the time for all associations in the film industry to join hands to put aside differences and implement them,” he added.
Mammootty further stated that the police investigation into the complaints raised was proceeding strongly and that the complete committee report was now before the court. “Let the police conduct an honest investigation. Let the court decide on punishments,” he said.
The actor made no mention of the sexual harassment cases against his colleagues, including Siddique, Ranjith, or Maniyanpilla Raju. Both Mohanlal and Mammootty did not say anything about the women who came forward to the Hema Committee or afterwards.
The Hema Committee was constituted by the Kerala government in 2017 to study the challenges faced by women in the Malayalam film industry. Though the committee submitted its findings to the government in 2019, it was made public only on August 19 this year, after the High Court refused to stay its release. The version now available to the public has been heavily redacted to protect the privacy of those who deposed, with all identifiers, including the names of the perpetrators, removed. The report, however, has since emboldened many women in the industry to publicly share their traumatic experiences, triggering another #MeToo wave in Kerala.