Actor Sri Reddy has become a popular point of discussion lately — she alleged widespread existence of the casting couch in Tollywood naming popular actors, directors and producers for seeking sexual favours and after her cries fell on deaf ears for staging a protest outside the Movies Artistes Association (MAA). A question about her was posed to actor Vishal at the promotional event of his upcoming film Sandakozhi 2 to which he opined among other things that cameras will be placed on the sets that Sri Reddy works in for everyone else’s protection if not her’s. Everyone laughed.
This response from a male actor, popular star, powerful producer and aspiring politician is hardly surprising. That actor Keerthy Suresh, the female lead of Sandakozhi 2 is seen smirking in the background in a video from the event isn’t surprising either. In fact, it tells us what we’ve known all along about the Old Boys Club of cinema, and a non-existent equivalent for the girls’. Whether its the top heroes of Bollywood tiptoeing around Nana Patekar misappropriate touching of Tanushree Dutta or Mollywood’s cinema stars covering up for Dileep in the case of abduction of an actor, it’s the same story everywhere. Men stick together, even when they compete for stardom with each other. And women? Well, they may know, and feel strongly, they may even whisper, but they will smile on stage because they also know they will be replaced in a blink or rendered jobless without an afterthought if they speak up. Men in the industry seem to be great at protecting one another, while women are disciplined to pull each other down with their silence.
That the mention of Sri Reddy now evokes laughter shows us that more a woman speaks up about her harassment at the hands of industry bigwigs, consistently less notice of it is taken till she and her career is reduced to a faint memory and more of a joke it becomes. When men with the power to bring about considerable change are held accountable, they will side step the questions, and like in this case joke about cameras for security instead of installing systems that keep their peers in check.
The onus on changing matters in the entertainment industry, especially with respect to harassment will fall on its consumers if the players do little about it. But what can we ask from consumers of cinema who watch it for escape, seek mindlessness and cheap entertainment? And what can we ask of a consumer that treats cinema as a product—good or bad—that only results in a customer review, as is warranted by a t-shirt made under horrendous conditions or a phone made in a factory that’s causing workers to suicide? What really may we ask of a consumer that revels in the intellectual debate of separating the art from the artist or one that cares not that no movie is being made for an extended period of time? Not much. Some sensitivity, some change to a sense of humour, and some anger that this is happening to people who feature in fantasies.
On the subject of fantasies, to note that we normalise sexual harassment in cinema and consider it matter of fact for anyone who wants to grow in it, only to respond to female actors allegations with ‘as if you didn’t know’, or ‘obviously, but you made the choice so stick with it’. Would we react differently if say it was female doctors instead of actors? Doctors that we treat as gods? maybe not. But maybe yes, given the people that we are, thinking a Sri Reddy is ‘attacking’ men, in the news for wrong reasons, and doing what it takes to not take her seriously. The joke is on us.
Archanaa Seker
seker.archanaa@gmail.com
The writer is a city-based activist, in-your-face feminist and a media glutton