The All-India Feminist Alliance (ALIFA) – a women’s rights group on Sunday, September 8, urged Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy to immediately release its report on the sexual harassment and gender discrimination in the Telugu film and television industry. This report was submitted to the Telangana Government in 2022. However, the government is yet to make these findings public.
On August 24, the Kerala government following the High Court’s intervention released the Hema Committee report which had found rampant instances of human rights violation, including sexual harassment, against women. The Hema Committee was formed in 2017, in the aftermath of a brutal sexual assault of a woman actor in Kochi, allegedly masterminded by actor Dileep. The Women in Cinema Collective (WCC) met with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in 2017 and demanded government action, leading to the committee’s formation.
ALIFA said that Telangana government should follow suit and release the High Committee Report which studied the conditions of women and trans people working in the entertainment industry.
Following a Public Interest Litigation, the previous BRS government in 2019 had constituted a High Committee comprising several activists and women police officers to study the prevalence of sexual harassment and discrimination against women in the industry.
The action was followed by actor Sri Reddy’s controversial semi-nude protest outside the Movie Artists Association office in Jubilee Hills alleging sexual harassment at workplace. The Committee had interviewed women from all the departments in the film and television industry.
Ram Mohan, who was then the chairperson of the Telangana State Film Development Corporation (TSFDC), was appointed to chair the committee. A sub-committee, tasked with making recommendations that would help the government implement guidelines to curtail sexual harassment in the industry, was also formed the same year.
According to the Committee members, many dubbing artists revealed their harrowing experiences of sexual exploitation and the unethical working conditions prevailing in the industry. Though they had submitted their findings to the government in 2022, the government is yet to release the report.
In the Malayalam film industry, the release of the Hema Committee report has triggered a wave of Me Too movement, encouraging survivors to name their perpetrators holding influential positions. Several popular actors like Mukesh, Jayasurya, Nivin Pauly, Siddique, director Ranjith Balakrishnan have been accused of sexual harassment.
Along with the report’s release, ALIFA also urged for a time-bound implementation of its recommendations, ensuring justice and safe, dignified working space in the entertainment industry, to lakhs of women, trans people and persons from working class backgrounds.
On August 30, Voice of Women (VOW), a collective of women Tollywood artists, including actors Samantha, Anushka Shetty and others had also demanded the release of the report. In a statement VOW said, “Taking cue from the WCC, The Voice of Women, a support group for women in the TFI [Telugu film industry] was created in 2019. We hereby urge the Telangana government, to publish the sub-committee report on sexual harassment, which can help frame government and industry policies, to establish a safe working environment for women in the TFI.”
VOW also added, “We, the women of the Telugu film industry, welcome the Hema Committee report and applaud the persistent efforts of the WCC in Kerala, which has laid the path to this moment.”