I'm an assistant director. I have been in the Tamil film industry for some years now. I have gone through, heard of, and witnessed a lot of things in this period. I have spoken out at times — but kept quiet most times to protect myself and to protect others who brought issues to my attention. I have spent sleepless nights trying to understand and decipher my experiences and those of others. I have been unable to step out and work in spaces that are unsafe. I have gone underground and not met people for days — months — at a time because my confidence has been broken. This has been the experience of someone like me who comes from the privilege of caste, class, sexuality, and economy. This has been the experience of someone like me who was in one of the comparatively safer workspaces in the industry. If this was the experience of someone as privileged as me, I can’t start to imagine the experiences of women who do not come from the same privileges that I do.
How many sleepless nights have they spent? How broken is their confidence? How many job opportunities have they turned down because of the fear of abuse? How are they surviving emotionally, economically, and socially?
What I write about here is the deafening silence — not of the women in the industry, but all you men over what you have been perpetrating for all these years. The silence of all you men who do not step up for the women in the industry. The silence that you all have so carefully, unanimously cultivated within the industry despite what class, caste, or any other social background you belong to. I mean the camaraderie that you all uniformly share when it comes to how you treat women, even though you can’t stand each other in any other context.
This article is about the silence of the “Brotherhood”, of the “Boys’ Club” in Tamil Cinema. If you are a man who has made any unsolicited advance towards a woman, or if you are a man who knows of even one other man who has made an unsolicited advance towards a woman, this article is about your silence. I am addressing you.