Malayalam film industry
Malayalam film industry, also known as Mollywood, is primarily a film industry which has been located in Thiruvananthapuram and also, to some extent, in Kochi, produces films (In recent years, web series also ) in the Malayalam language. Despite there are other industries that predominantly exist in India, Like Bollywood, Tollywood, Kollywood, etc.
The Malayalam film industry is considered one of the superiors due to the majority of the films of them is being based on realism tropes also making films rooted deeply in the culture (Unlike the majority Bollywood and Other South Indian films which have been criticised a lot due to showing unrealistic things that can’t be a thing if the realism angle being brought out) and also they brings the social issues in an effective way to the audience.
This industry also holds the record for having the highest number of films (Being tied to Bollywood) for India’s official entry on Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film; some of the films which have been made in this way are Guru, 2018, Jalikkattu etc.
However, it has been seen every time that the majority of the good things also have an ugly side that either gets unearthed or is buried in a deep state. The Malayalam film industry is also not exceptional in this case. The film industry has been recently exposed to promoting a work culture which is very unsafe and toxic, especially for women, due to things like sexual abuse, casting couch practices, gender discrimination and, out of all that, rampant drug abuse with various actresses coming up with their assault or abuse which they faced by prominent directors or actors.
This scandal in the Malayalam film industry is being referred to as the Indian version of Me Too (The incident that came forward in the United States of America in 2018, which brought various sexual allegations against prominent Hollywood celebrities like Harvey Weinstein, James Franco, T.J Miller, Bryan Singer, Kevin Spacey etc into light).
The incident that started it all
The origin of this scandalous event in the Malayalam film industry dates way back to February 2017. It was a typical day for everyone but not for a famous actress in the Malayalam film industry (Whose name was being hidden by the media at that time until, in recent years, the name was revealed as Bhavna Menon, known for her roles in films such as C.I.D Moosa, Swapnakoodu, Naran, Chotta Mumbai, Deepavali etc.) who was returning from her night shoot for a movie.
However, in the middle of her journey, she was abducted and sexually assaulted by a couple of thugs, with one of them recording the entire incident on their camera. The actress was further threatened by Pulsar Suni ( The leader of this gang that attacked her ) that if she spoke about this incident to the media or even the authorities, her video, which had been filmed, would be leaked to the internet.
However, she didn’t bow down to the threats of the attackers; instead, she complained to law enforcement, and the effectiveness of the Kerela Police brought all of the accusers behind bars. However, there was a firm speculation among police that there might be a bigger picture of the crime scene and that some big fish of the Malayalam film industry were tied up with it.
This speculation on the investigation was confirmed to be true when they found evidence that Pulsar Suni and his cronies were directly provided with a contract (Or even supari is being said on the underworld language ) by Dileep, who is a well-known actor in Malayalam film industry (Having gained the status of the superstar in the late 90s ) despite Pulsar Suni and his cronies were trying there best to put the blame on their own hand.
Finally, after gaining a lot of evidence, on July 11 2017, the Kerala police arrested Dileep, his manager Appunni and his friend Nadirshah (A director in the Malayalam film industry ).
This entire incident united eighteen women from the Malayalam film industry to ensure that such an incident never gets repeated in Mollywood and that women this paved the way for the creation of the Women in Cinema Collective on 2017 in the Malayalam film industry, which has sought to ensure that the gender equality narrative is restored in Mollywood. This particular organisation has directly had a strong hand in uncovering the dark and disturbing secrets of the film industry, which is being seen in the present day.
The formation of the Hema Committee
The Women in Cinema Collective, or WCC in 2017, followed by their formation, one of the first things they have done is to send an online petition to the Chief Minister of Kerala, Pinarayi Bijayan . One of the main things that has been written on the petition is to highlight the problems which the female artists of the Malayalam film industry have faced.
The particular petition worked miraculously, as in this process, the Chief Minister quickly ordered the formation of a committee that consisted of the retired judge of Kerala High Court, Justice K. Hema. This committee also included a prominent Malayalam film industry actress, Sarada and a retired IAS officer, K.B Vasala Kumari, as the members. After having an investigation for over five months, they finally sent their report to the Government of Kerala on 31st December 2019.
However, despite the report being sent in December 2019, the reports were never made public for five years. One of the reasons is that the Government of Kerala thought that the information which has been contained in this file has a lot of information which is sensitive in nature, and if this information is released to the public, this could severely impact the Malayalam film industry (Since the film industry has a significant amount of contribution to the GDP of the state this thing also can get a negative impact in this process ).
However, thanks to several long five-year legal battles at the Kerala High Court between the government and RTI or Right To Information activists, Finally, on 6th July, it was announced that the reports of this committee will be made available to the public. However, the original report of the Hema committee was 295 pages, but only 63 pages were made available under the Right to Information Act.
Due to the reports having various prominent names being tied up, there was also a delay in releasing this information to the public. First, it was declared that this report would be published on 24th July, but later, it was postponed due to multiple pleas from the Malayalam film Industry, like Saji Parayil (Who is a producer ). But the High Court of Kerala dismissed all such pleas from the people of the Malayalam film industry, and finally, on 13th August, the report was published in front of the public.
The scandals which have come out from the report
The 63 pages of the Hema Committee, when it was revealed in public (The pages that now being just considered the tip of the iceberg, the iceberg here referred to as the entire 295 pages) revealed various horrific practices which have been going on the Malayalam film industry for a long amount of time which diminished the positive, progressive image which the industry has built for an extended amount of time.
Some of them which have come in this context are various forms of sexual abuse, illegal drugs and alcohol abuse and discrimination; the report described Mollywood as a purely male-dominated film industry with a handful amount of male producers, directors and actors being the kingpin of running this industry (Which they coined as an exclusive boys club).
In this report, more than 17 forms of exploitation have been mentioned that have been faced by women in the industry, from molestation to even providing private entertainment to the producers or actors and their friends. In this particular report by the testimonial of various actresses and junior artists, some of the people who are being put forward on charge are director Baburaj, actor Siddique, Mukesh, Jayasurya, Maniyanpilla Raju, Edavela Babu, Thulasidas and MLA of the ruling party Mukesh of various sexual harassment and misconducts.
It was also stated in this particular report that the women in the Malayalam film industry to survive in that place had also been asked to make various adjustments and compromises; otherwise, if they refused this approach, they were automatically blacklisted from the industry with no chance of them surviving at any cost.
One of the horrifying tales that came from a testimonial of a Malayalam film industry actress was that she had to rehearse a scene in which the lead actor was kissing her, and the director of the film purposely took 17 takes to finalise that particular shot. Such reports have depicted that despite how progressive, the liberal image Mollywood has presented is the opposite as, in reality, they have a very backdated conservative patriarchal mentality.
The reports also stated that there is a lack of toilet facilities and changing rooms for women, which raises the question of how utterly the Malayalam film industry has failed to maintain hygiene for women (Which is a necessary thing, particularly for women).
Actress who have come forward
After the publication of the Hema Committee report, various actresses started to come out with their horrific experiences in the Malayalam film industry.
The first one who came out in this process is Sreelekha Mitra, a prominent Bengali actress; she revealed on a TV Show that she encountered an experience from director Ranjith Balakrishnan in 2009, which she described as so horrific that she had to drop out from the film. An actress (Who didn’t reveal her name) talked about inappropriate behaviour from Mollywood actors Siddique and Riyaz Khan.
Geetha Vijayan and Sridevika (Two actresses in the Malayalam film industry) shared their negative experiences with director Thulasisdas, whom both described as traumatic. Some other actors’ names have been come by actresses who came forward with their stories. Some were already on the list of the Hema Committee ( Like Jayasurya, Maniyanpilla Raju and Edavela Babu); some new additions were director V.A Shirikumar and actor Baburaj Jacob and Mukesh.
Two unnamed actresses have also lodged two FIR reports against Nivin Pauly and Alencie Ley Lopez; they have been charged in the context of casting couch allegations.
The AMMA panel is being disbanded.
The Association of Malayalam Movie Artists ( AMMA ) is primarily an organisation for actors and actresses working in the Malayalam film industry; this particular organisation was formed in 1994. This specific organisation’s publishing of the 63-page report of Hema Committee was followed by a series of backlash and criticism as to why this organisation didn’t react in such an incident in the first place, why they didn’t bring a strict policy, etc., and how they let various sexual predators (who’s named have been come upon on the committee report or by the testimonial of the actress).
Actors like Mohanlal and Mamooty (The leading figures in this organisation ) were also severely criticised as to why they remained silent when this injustice happened in the Malayalam film industry.
Ranjit Balakrishna, who Mrs Mitra accused, was the first one to step down from the organisation as a chairman. Subsequently, Siddquie, who held the General Secretary position of this organisation, also stepped down.
Even superstars of the Malayalam film industry, like Prithviraj Sukumaran, have started to question the organisation, stating that there are loopholes in AMMA.
In response to these allegations, the AMMA committee led by Mohanlal ( As president ) conducted a mass resignation, which led to the organisation being dissolved, which was stated to exist till 2027.
The impact of this incident on other film industry
This controversy in the Malayalam film industry has not only been limited to this particular industry but also spread to other film industries, like a tracer bullet, which has a growing potential to change the Indian film industry for good.
Samantha Ruth Prabhu, a well-known Telugu film actress, was the first to speak up. She demanded that the Government of Telangana publish a similar report on sexual harassment to the one the Hema Committee in Kerala has done. She was supported by various other Telugu actresses like Manchu Lakshmi Prasanna, Suma Kanakala, Pragathi Mahavadi and Director Nandini Reddy.
Abhishek Banerjee ( A famous Bollywood actor known for his roles like Hathoda Tyagi on Paatal Lok ) also stated the urgency of the Hema Committee, like the Malayalam film industry in Bollywood due to the casting couch practices that have been very much prevalent in the industry.
The notable approach taken following the Hema Committee reports of the Malayalam film industry has directly come from Kollywood (The films primarily being made in Tamil). The Nadigar Sangam ( Which is the association of Tamil film artists ) passed a resolution on Sunday calling that any sexual harassment in the industry be taken into strict measures as soon as the complaint is lodged.
In the wake of the Hema Committee report, the Karnataka film chamber held a meeting on Sunday with the female artists to discuss their issues. The president, NM Suresh, has said there will be multiple meetings with the female artists to help them get a clear picture of this incident.
The Bengali film industry, with a joint petition by actresses like Aparna Sen, Swastika Mukherjee, Rupa Ganguly, Sohini Sarkar, etc., has provided a petition to the state-run Eastern India Motion Picture Association (EIMPA), Federation of Cine Workers and West Bengal Motion Picture Artists Forums to establish an investigating body that is similar to the Hema Committee. Ritabhari Chakraborty (A well-known Bengali actress ) has stated on her Instagram profile that there is an urgency for the creation of something like the Hema Committee in Tollywood because, like the Malayalam film industry, the Bengali cinema has also been filled with various predators.
The effects
The effect of the Malayalam film industry has already been seen in the Indian film industry. The first notable incident regarding the Karnataka film industry was scheduled a meeting between the artist forum and female artists as there were numerous allegations that Sandalwood (the name of which the KFI is popular) doesn’t pay heed to this kind of thing. Perhaps this incident made them get out of their old-school patriarchal mentality for the first time.
Another effect of this Malayalam film incident, seen in the film industry, is on the Bengali film industry. Arindam Sil, a famous director of the Bengali film industry who has been accused of numerous sexual allegations in the past, has finally got an effect for his deeds as he was suspended from the Directors Association of Eastern India on Sunday.
So the scandals of the Malayalam film industry have finally brought change (Even if it is slow, but never mind ) for good in the Indian film industry, and sooner or later, more such changes can be expected, which will successfully eradicate the old issue of the Indian cinema regarding female artists.
FAQ
Who was the leader of the gang that attacked Bhavna Menon?
The actress was further threatened by Pulsar Suni (The prominent leader of the gang that attacked her)
When did Kerela Police arrest Dileep?
Finally, after gaining a lot of evidence, on July 11 2017, the Kerala police arrested Dileep, his manager Appunni and his friend Nadirshah (A director in the Malayalam film industry).
When did the Women in Cinema Collective formed?
The Women in Cinema Collective was created in 2017
Who are the members of the Hema Committee?
This committee also included a prominent Malayalam film industry actress, Sarada and a retired IAS officer, K.B Vasala Kumari, as the members.
When did the Hema Committee send their report to the government?
After having an investigation for over five months, they finally sent their report to the Government of Kerala on 31st December 2019.
How many pages is the Hema Committee’s report?
However, the original report of the Hema Committee was 295 pages, but only 63 pages were made available under the Right to Information Act.
Why do the reports of the Hema Committee keep getting postponed to be released to the public?
Due to the reports having various prominent names being tied up, there was also a delay in releasing this information to the public. First, it was declared that this report would be published on 24th July, but later, it was postponed due to multiple pleas from the Malayalam film Industry, like Saji Parayil (Who is a producer).
How many forms of exploitation have been mentioned as being faced by women in the Malayalam film industry?
In this report, more than 17 forms of exploitation have been mentioned that have been faced by women in the industry, from molestation to even providing private entertainment to the producers or actors and their friends.
What was AMMA’s reaction to the Malayalam film industry scandal?
In response to these allegations, the AMMA committee led by Mohanlal ( As president ) conducted a mass resignation, which led to the organisation being dissolved, which was stated to exist till 2027.
What is the reaction of the Telugu films industry in this Hema Committee case?
Samantha Ruth Prabhu, a well-known Telugu film actress, was the first to speak up. She demanded that the Government of Telangana publish a similar report on sexual harassment to the one the Hema Committee in Kerala has done. She was supported by various other Telugu actresses like Manchu Lakshmi Prasanna, Suma Kanakala, Pragathi Mahavadi and Director Nandini Reddy.
What was Kollywood’s reaction to this incident?
The notable approach taken following the Hema Committee reports of the Malayalam film industry has directly come from Kollywood (The films primarily being made in Tamil). The Nadigar Sangam (Which is the association of Tamil film artists) passed a resolution on Sunday calling that any sexual harassment in the industry be taken into strict measures as soon as the complaint is lodged.
Which director was suspended by the Director of Eastern India on Sunday?
Arindam Sil, a famous director of the Bengali film industry who has been accused of numerous sexual allegations in the past, has finally got an effect for his deeds as he was suspended from the Directors Association of Eastern India on Sunday.
