KOCHI: With director Vidhu Vincent resigning from Women in Cinema Collective (WCC) alleging double standards and elitism, more women from various fields have come up with similar allegations against the fraternity.
Soon after Vidhu Vincent's remarks against WCC, it was costume designer Stephy Xavior who, through a Facebook post, complained that she was removed from the work of a movie helmed by a prominent WCC member two years back when she asked for remuneration.
Interestingly, actor Aishwarya Lekshmi's post under Stephy's Facebook post can also be read as an indication that all is not well in WCC. "I'm thankful you finally decided to speak about this," the actor said. She also tagged music director Govind Vasantha in her post and asked "Govind, Saw this? Anything to add?".
Aishwarya's post also was aimed at the same WCC member, against whom Stephy raised the allegations. Both Stephy and Govind Vasantha's names were initially included at the time when the above-mentioned director's movie was announced. However, both left the project halfway.
Meanwhile, the Women In Cinema Collective has not come up with any official statement until Tuesday evening. The office-bearers of WCC, last year, had stated that they will officially post their versions on issues through their social media pages rather than giving individual statements.
However, in an indirect post extending support to the WCC, actor Parvathy uploaded the WCC logo as the cover photo of her social media pages along with lines from Albert Camus' Invincible Summer which read: "Amid winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back."
The actor, without making it explicit, was trying to say that it was during difficult times that a person realises one's true potential and each one of them in WCC has that extreme energy within themselves to overcome it. On Monday, in her Facebook post, Vidhu said that she had approached actor Parvathy for the role in Stand Up, her second movie.
Vidhu said even after months, the actor did not say either yes or no which made her feel that she was not even worth consideration to say at least a "no".
Vidhu also accused that WCC had asked an explanation from her associating with director and Film Employees Federation of Kerala (FEFKA) chairman Unnikrishnan B, whose last movie was with actor Dileep.
"The same was not the stance taken by WCC when Parvathy acted along with Siddique, who openly supported Dileep at the time of the actress abduction case or when Anjali Menon cast director Ranjith, another person who supported Dileep," Vidhu said.