KOCHI: A Day after the Women in Cinema Collective (WCC) came out with its version of the events leading up to filmmaker Vidhu Vincent’s resignation from the collective, Geetu Mohandas, actor- director and senior WCC member, responded to allegations levelled by costume designer Stephy Xavior. Following Vidhu’s exit citing double standards in WCC, Stephy had accused Geetu (without naming her) of removing her from the latter’s directorial venture Moothon.
According to Stephy, it was for asking remuneration for the work she did that Geetu dropped her as costume designer of the movie, which had Nivin Pauly in the lead. Without explicitly mentioning Stephy by name, Geetu said, “The post by my colleague has put my film crew and myself in distress and for the sake of all of us it’s perhaps important to understand how to read this issue.” Geetu, who entered Mollywood as a child actor through Onnu Muthal Poojyam Vare (1986) later established herself as an actor and went on to direct the widely acclaimed Liar’s Dice in 2014. Moothon was her second feature film as director. Earlier, Stephy had said when she asked for remuneration, Geetu reiterated a mass dialogue — “By the time you were born, I was already in films”.
Regarding the charge levelled against her, Geetu said the circumstances in which the conversation took place and the version given out by Stephy did not reflect the truth. “The dialogue you mentioned — people who know me are well aware that I’m quite capable of such unwarranted anger. I’m certainly not proud of it. I must have spoken to you far more harshly than what you have mentioned, but the circumstances under which the conversation took place and what you said is false,” Geetu said.
“The dialogue you mentioned was spoken to your assistant after my team informed me that the costumes my designer Maxima made had been taken away by you without my knowledge, after your exit from the project,” she said. Geetu wondered if there was even a grain of truth in Stephy’s allegations. “Why didn’t she register a complaint before the film’s release last year? I’m questioning the motive behind this defamation now, which seems to be quite timely. So kindly observe that this is exactly what we should not be doing to each other. Women lynching women. If my actions have hurt you, I am still ready to talk the issue over,” she said. Earlier, more women, including actor Aishwarya Lekshmi and model and actor Ayesha Sultana, had backed Stephy’s statement against Geetu. On Ayesha’s comments, Geetu said the actor had no connection with Moothon.