THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Confirming statements made by women artists before the Hema Committee and the observations of the committee that incidents of sexual harassment occur in the Malayalam movie industry, filmmaker Vinayan said some junior artists had told him about negative experiences. Talking to TNIE Vinayan said the junior artists told their bitter experiences when he was holding the post of president of Malayalam Cine Technicians Association (MACTA Federation).
“Those junior artists also told me when they said ‘No’ to the attempts of sexual exploitation and casting couch they were denied chances in the future. I had intervened in instances when these incidents were reported to me. I called these individuals and told them not to act against the ethos in a strong voice,” he said.
Vinayan also said that the women artists who had given statements about the attempted sexual assaults or experiences they went through must be true. “No woman will give false statements about these incidents,” he said. When asked about the allegations of casting couch and sexual exploitation from male stars or artists Vinayan said there might be chances that those instances had occurred. “I have no first -hand information about it as the power lobby in the Malayalam movie industry had destroyed MACTA. I had heard some stories that if the women artists did not succumb to attempts, they were subjected to defaming in the shooting sets on the next day,” he said.
He alleged that it was the act of superstars blindly supporting actor Dileep, one of the accused in the actor-abduction case, which put the film industry on a spot. “Even before the court’s decision, many of them voiced support for him,” he said. Vinayan said that the Internal Complaints Committee is not an answer to resolve sexual assault and other petitions. “Now what filmmakers are doing is that they form a committee with some actors, actresses and other artists who have been paid to work in his film, as ICC. How can such a committee deliver justice? What we need is the state government forming a panel of individuals and appointing them as ICC members on film sets,” he said.
Vinayan alleged that actors Innocent, Mammooty, Mohanlal and Dileep played a major role in banning him from working in the Malayalam film industry. “It was after Dileep declined to work with director Thulasidas after receiving the advance for a film that MACTA intervened in the issue. Dileep demanded the director be changed. MACTA was of the opinion that once Dileep commits to work for a film and receives the advance he should act.
Directors K Madhu and Harikumar asked me to take strong steps. We told Dileep to arrive at a decision within three months. However, Dileep worked against MACTA through directors Ranjith, Priyadarshan and Sathyan Anthikkadu. B Unnikrishnan stabbed me from behind and became the FEFKA general secretary. They all deserted MACTA overnight. In 2007, when I was the chairman of the ‘Cinema Forum’, we sabotaged these superstars’ attempts to corner producers. These stars decided to go for a foreign tour as a retaliatory step against the demand that there should be a contract between producers and directors, artists and technicians,”he said.
