At a time the country debates the political immunity enjoyed by Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh who is accused of sexual assault, a singer has spoken out about another powerful man, Vairamuthu, against whom there are already multiple allegations of sexual harrassment. Vairamuthu is one of the most popular lyricists in the Tamil film industry. From the Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan awarded by the Union government to various felicitations by the Tamil Nadu state government, Vairamuthu has for long enjoyed both prestige and proximity to power.
Bhuvana Seshan, an established light music singer who is now 50, tells TNM, “There are 17 women who have spoken about Vairamuthu. Only four have come out publicly. The rest remain anonymous. That’s how scared they are. And who can blame them? Of course, people will back out when they know nothing will be done to help them.”
This question of accountability was raised in the wake of the wrestlers’ protest against Brij Bhushan by playback singer Chinmayi. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin had spoken in support of the wrestlers when their Jantar Mantar protest site in New Delhi was violently shut down by the police. Chinmayi, speaking to ANI at the time, had said, “When I speak about Vairamuthu, CM Stalin goes silent. My case is in the City Civil Court for the past 5 years and nothing has happened so far.” Vairamuthu has long enjoyed close ties to the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in Tamil Nadu.
Bhuvana also blames Vairamuthu for giving up on a career in playback singing. “Vairamuthu told me, ‘I have the power to make you a star overnight. I also have the power to never let you become a star’. The kind of talk from him for several days was, ‘I can make you or break you’,” she alleges.
The harassment she faced from Vairamuthu occurred in 1998, Bhuvana alleges. The singer also alleges that Vairamuthu pressured her for sexual favours. What Bhuvana narrates reveals the nature of the power Vairamuthu wielded at the time.
“I was singing a jingle for a textile showroom. The lyrics were his. I think the production was also his. He told me I had a great voice, that I have good Tamil diction and that people like me should definitely grow in the industry. He also said that he would pass on my demo CD [of her singing] to AR Rahman. I was very young, very excited. I met him the next day at his office and gave him the demo CD. There were no cell phones in those days. I had given him my landline number. We used to talk almost everyday. I come from a family of Tamil literature enthusiasts, so we talked a lot about Tamil literature. I was young but I had a lot of pride, so I did not want to ask about the demo CD. We talked about everything else. Then the conversations started getting personal and I got uncomfortable. I didn’t know how to react.”
Events took a turn for the worse after this for Bhuvana. She tells TNM that Vairamuthu kept pressuring her to accompany him to Malaysia for an award ceremony. “I asked him if he wanted me as a singer or an anchor, since I also used to work as a newsreader. He said, ‘Neither. I want you to come with me.’ That’s when it hit me, what he meant. I told him I was not comfortable with that and didn’t want to talk about it.” This was when Vairamuthu, the survivor alleges, said that he had the power to make her a star and that he could make or break her.
“I knew that he had that power. But the way in which I become a star should be only my decision. Some of the small gigs I had lined up started getting cancelled one by one. I understood the pattern, so I decided not to pursue playback singing. Yes, it was crushing. It was a huge part of my dream. It was a choice that I made and I still stand by it. I do not want this to happen to anybody else.”
Bhuvana says that she had shared her experience with friends in the light music community who came out in support of her when she first spoke about Vairamuthu in 2018. But this sense of community support did not come from the Tamil film industry where Vairamuthu continues to be a powerful figure. “The Tamil film industry was silent. Women in the Malayalam film industry, on the other hand, reached out to us when the ONV award was announced for Vairamuthu. They had nothing to do with him, but were ready to stand with us.”
In 2021, the ONV Cultural Academy in Kerala announced Vairamuthu as the recipient of the ONV Literary Award. The announcement met with severe backlash. The Women in Cinema Collective (WCC) questioned the jury’s decision to confer the award on Vairamuthu in the light of the allegations against him. Actors Parvathy, Rima Kallingal, Geetu Mohandas, director Anjali Menon were among the prominent personalities who criticised the Academy for providing a platform to Vairamuthu.
Bhuvana also points to the ban on Chinmayi by the South Indian Cine, Television Artistes and Dubbing Artistes Union (SICTADAU) after she spoke out against Vairamuthu. Though the singer had earlier managed to get a court-mandated stay on the ban in 2021, the Union has since got the stay order vacated.The ban, it must be recalled, was brought about by the then SICTADAU president and popular actor Radha Ravi. At the time Radha Ravi was a part of the DMK. He has since, following a separate controversy, left the party to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) instead.
In this light, Bhuvana tells TNM, “Detach politics, religion or caste from a woman’s honour. These things have nothing to do with our honour. Unless people stop building agendas for something that has happened to others, such issues are not going to move forward.”
The DMK government has now announced a list of committees to commemorate late chief minister M Karunanidhi. Vairamuthu features prominently on this list. According to the government’s press release, the lyricist is part of the ‘Thamizhthayin Thavaputhalvan’ (Mother Tamil’s precious son) committee headed by state Finance and Human Resources Minister Thangam Thenarsu. Vairamuthu’s proximity to power, particularly to the DMK, has been called out by many including singer Chinmayi, who was one of the survivors to first speak publicly about him. The DMK continues to fete Vairamuthu in various ways while refusing to respond to the allegations. The recent announcement now raises the question: is this how the DMK wants to memorialise Karunanidhi?
As a note to readers, Bhuvana previously spoke to TNM in 2018 when the allegations against Vairamuthu first came to light. At the time she had chosen to speak on the condition of anonymity and her name was changed to Ananya in the article.