Actor and activist Chetan Kumar Ahimsa expressed his disappointment over the lack of support by Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to form a committee for probing human rights violations, including sexual harassment in the Kannada film industry. He was speaking at an event, Lights, Camera, Accountability: Reimagining Karnataka’s Screen and Stage, organised by the Bangalore International Centre on Tuesday, September 10.
The actor, along with members of the Film Industry for Rights and Equality (FIRE), had met Siddaramaiah at his residence to urge the Karnataka government to constitute a committee similar to the Hema Committee, which was formed following the abduction and sexual assault of a top female actor in Kerala in February 2017.
Describing the meeting with the CM, Chetan said Siddaramaiah brushed FIRE’s concerns aside by stating that the Hema Committee was formed because of the actor assault case and questioned whether there was sexual harassment in the Kannada film industry. “We said we have a lot of complaints ourselves. If it was a question to find out answers and take the issue forward, of course we will give all the information. But to deny, disregard, and be conveniently unaware and not take action, then no matter how much we fight, there is no way to address this issue in a strong way,” Chetan stated, adding that the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce and men in power have written to the CM saying they do not want the release of a similar report after the women’s commission pushed them to take some steps regarding the issue.
Praising the Women in Cinema Collective (WCC) for leading the movement, Chetan said FIRE was emboldened by the Kerala government when it released the report. “Despite the delay, it was the only government in the country to do so. The scope of self-critique and self-reform is limited in the Kannada film industry. The state should give us support to crackdown on sexual harassment, which is not just immoral and illegal but a direct assault on human dignity,” he added.
Ashwini Obulesh, lawyer and founder of Dhwani Legal Trust, said it was difficult to think of a law that could cover the entire film industry. She said the challenges in the film industry are similar to the issues faced by domestic workers. “Domestic workers do different things in different houses. It is very difficult to define how much work they do per hour. This is the same problem in the film industry. The nature of the work is different per artist, which makes it difficult.”
Sharing details of an instance where an actor was sexually harassed during the shooting of a film, Ashwini said, “There was a hugging scene between the survivor and a senior actor. They are married to each other in the film, and the actor harassed the woman while shooting it. When she went to complain, her morality was questioned and linked to the posters and films the woman was part of. Some people do not understand that consent to act in a scene does not mean consent to harassment.”
Du Saraswathi, writer and theatre artist, said there was a need to recognise acting as a form of labour. “We were ashamed of talking about our own bodies. The strength came when we started exploring our own body, sexuality, and desire, which we had never done before.”
Explaining the importance of the Hema Committee report, Muktha Deedi Chand, Research Scholar and Assistant Professor at St Joseph's University, said it gave authenticity to the issues that already existed. “If there are no cases regarding sexual harassment being reported from this big an industry, it means there is a fault in the grievance redressal mechanism. Maybe the women do not believe in that redressal mechanism,” she added.