CHENNAI: Late on Monday, in a shocking turn, the #MeToo movement hit at the heart of Tamil cinema, with lyricist Vairamuthu alleged to be a harasser. Singer and voice artist Chinmayi corroborated at least three accounts of his alleged sexual misconduct and posted them on Twitter without naming the survivors. On Tuesday, she posted about her own experiences.
Vairamuthu’s name had cropped up when a journalist, who has been collating various accounts of workplace harassment, put out a tweet with an account of the lyricist allegedly misbehaving with a person who shared the experience on conditions of anonymity. Chinmayi tweeted her support and said, “The industry knows; the men know. Time’s Up. The time is bloody up.”
Chinmayi told Express, “He is a serial predator. This has happened to multiple people.”On Tuesday afternoon, the National Award-winning singer tweeted about her own first-hand experience: “In the year 2005/2006 maybe. Veezhamattom, an album for Srilankan Tamizhs that I had sung in, as had Manikka Vinayagam sir. I don’t remember if it was a book or an album release or both; the performances and launch happened in Switzerland in (Bern/Zurich maybe).
We performed; everyone left. Only my mother and I were asked to stay back. The organiser (I don’t remember his name) asked me to visit Vairamuthu sir in a hotel in Lucerne,” she wrote, adding, “I asked why. He told me to cooperate. I refused. We demanded to be sent back to India. He said ‘You won’t have a career!’ My mother and I both put our foot down, career vendam mannum vendam...”
Chinmayi added that three or maybe four years ago, the lyricist had a book release function and asked her to sing Tamizh Thaai Vaazhthu. When she refused, the singer alleges Vairamuthu responded that he would tell an (unnamed) politician that she had spoken ill of him on stage, yelled at her and hung up. “I bawled. My parents in law consoled me.
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Then I had the courage to call his manager back and told him ‘I’ll go and tell the same politician you’re lying because I have NEVER given a political speech and HE will trust ME.’ This for refusing to sing. And you ask why victims don’t name him?” Chinmayi said, adding that in 17 years no one else had misbehaved with her. “I call Vairamuthu (sir) out alone and I dare. The staff at Vairamuthu sir’s office KNOW. His closest confidants know. They are also his enablers... I don’t care if I never sing or dub in this industry...”Actors Siddharth, Rohini, director C S Amudhan, singer Shaktishree Gopalan tweeted their support to Chinmayi. Efforts by Express to reach the lyricist for his response were unsuccessful.