Malayalam actor-director Balachandra Menon has been booked in a complaint of sexual harassment filed by a junior artiste. The complaint was made to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted by the Kerala government to probe the allegations of sexual harassment raised by various film industry insiders in the aftermath of the publication of the Hema Commitee report in August this year.
A popular director with many hits to his name, Balachandra Menon is often dubbed as a ‘single-man industry’ as he is known to direct, script, and act in his movies. He is also known for introducing many noteworthy actors in Malayalam, including Shobana, Parvathy Jayaram, Karthika, and others.
The junior artiste accused Balachandra Menon of sexually harassing her twice, reportedly at the location of the film Dhe Ingottu Nokkiye in 2007. “He invited me to his room. I assumed it was for something related to the movie. But when I got there I saw three women lying naked on his bed, and three other men watching. I left the room right away.” She added, “On another occasion, he asked me and another junior artiste to offer sexual favours. When we refused, he masturbated in front of us.”
The complainant first raised these allegations in a YouTube video that has since been removed. Following this, Balachandra Menon reportedly wrote to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and the Director General of Police, alleging defamation. The Ernakulam Rural police reportedly initiated a probe based on the actor-director’s complaint.
A case has also been reportedly registered under the IT Act by the Kochi cyber police against the YouTube channel that first aired the junior artiste’s allegation.
The junior artiste was approached by the SIT after she made allegations of sexual assault against actor and MLA M Mukesh, actors Jayasurya, Maniyanpilla Raju, and Idavela Babu. The SIT was formed by the Kerala government on August 25 under IGP G Sparjan Kumar. The team also includes senior women police officers and is operating under the supervision of Crime Branch ADGP H Venkatesh.
The Justice Hema Committee was formed by the Kerala Government in 2017 based on a petition by the Women in Cinema Collective (WCC) to study the challenges faced by women in the industry. In December 2019, they had submitted the findings to the Kerala government but the report was not made public for so long because of multiple reasons. The report has pointed out various issues ranging from sexual abuse and lack of grievance redressal systems to the unavailability of toilet facilities for women on film sets.