The Hema Committee report has triggered the opening of a Pandora's box in Malayalam cinema with new distressing revelations of sexual abuse surfacing every day. The latest of these revelations has come from noted actress Radhika Sarathkumar who shared her experience working in a Malayalam film set.
The veteran actress has disclosed that hidden cameras were placed in the caravans of heroines to record nude scenes, which were later widely shared among several men involved in the film. She detailed that the recordings were stored in separate folders, with each folder being labelled with the names of different actresses.
Radhika recounted personally witnessing men on set viewing these recordings on their mobile phones, as a result of which she ended up staying in a hotel room and avoided using a caravan during the entire shoot, reported Asianet News.
She refused to name the movie saying she did not want to shame anyone.
"I have had experiences where women came to me saying please help us, this is not just in Kerala, across languages," Radhika said.
Welcoming the release of the Hema Committee report, she explained that she had experiences similar to that mentioned in the report.
"I have been in the industry for more than 40 years...Of course, people have misbehaved with me," she said.
Radhika also expressed concern over the silence of the men in the industry when it comes to issues of sexual abuse and discrimination.
"No man has opened his mouth, no man has said anything... the onus is always on the woman," she said.
Meanwhile, the Special Investigation Team constituted by the Kerala government to probe the complaints regarding sexual abuse in Malayalam cinema informed that they will record the statements of Radhika and initiate further proceedings.
Another distressing revelation has come from veteran actress Maala Parvathy who alleged being sexually abused during the shooting of a 2010 Malayalam movie Apoorvaragam.
“There was a scene in the movie where Nancy (Nithya Menen), who was my daughter in the film, was playfully running around me and tugging at my saree. The man who played my husband’s role was supposed to playfully touch Nancy. During the shot, he reached out with his right hand to touch Nancy, but with his left hand he groped me hard,” Parvathy said in an interview with News18.
She said she felt intense pain but was too stunned to react immediately.
The director, Sibi Malayil, called for a retake to exclude the male actor's hands, she said.
She had to go through 16 retakes as Parvathy's discomfort showed on her face which led to the actor messing up his lines.
“I kept staring at him without blinking. He would look at me and then mess up his lines,” she said.
Parvathy recounted that the experience was so traumatic that it forced her to take a six-month break from acting.
She returned on the advice of her husband, who encouraged her to fight such things and not compromise her career.
“One should not back down. You can only win a battle when you fight it,” Parvathy recounted her husband as saying.
Since the release of the Hema Committee report which detailed systemic sexual abuse and discrimination against women in the Malayalam film industry, several women have come out and shared their experiences. As many as 18 cases have been registered on the complaints of women, involving several noted filmmakers and actors in the Malayalam cinema.
