In shocking revelations, the Justice K. Hema Committee report on the condition of women in the Malayalam film industry, which was finally released on Monday, said the male-dominated industry is ruled by a “mafia”, which also includes some top actors, and actresses face a harrowing time at work.
The Committee said its members were in a state of shock after hearing the testimonies.
She says the Internal Complaints Committee for each film has proven ineffective and the state government should find new ways to ensure that women’s interests are taken into account in the film industry.
Last week, the Kerala High Court gave the green light for the report to be published, on the condition that no names were included in the report and all confidential information was removed. There were also some attempts on Monday to delay it, but these were unsuccessful.
The 289-page report claims that the “mafia” in the film industry is controlled by a section of male directors, producers and actors and all those who lodge a complaint are marginalised and subjected to untold miseries.
An actress testified that she had to shoot 17 times with a person who had molested her and because of that, the director and others got angry. Another actress said that despite numerous requests to the director to tell her about intimate scenes and the details, the director did not inform her and after the shooting was over, she asked the director not to go ahead with those scenes but her request was rejected and she was threatened that he would even make the scenes public domain.
The report also reveals that casting couch is a widespread practice in the film industry, with those who act in small roles the most affected, especially if they want to be considered for more roles. If new actresses want to be considered for a role in a film, they have to agree to sleep with the decision-makers.
She also says that there is a situation in which actresses have to go to their families for fear of being exploited. She also says that at night, knocks are heard on the doors of the actresses’ rooms and, if they do not open the door, the “visitors” bang on the door violently.
Another shocking fact is that even to get good quality food at filming locations, women have to make compromises.
She also points out that female producers are also on the receiving end of the male-dominated film lobby.
In short, the report notes that the industry’s gloss is just the surface covering the ugly side of the male-dominated film industry. It is also suspected that there were attempts to ensure that this report, which was submitted in 2019, took so long to be published and that when it finally came out, names and certain damning details had not yet been revealed.
It remains to be seen how the Pinarayi Vijayan The Government will deal with this report.
When the report was published, all members of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA), both actors and actresses, were busy taking part in a final rehearsal for a charity show to be held near Kochi on Tuesday.
In his reaction, AMMA general secretary and popular actor Siddique said that they had only heard that a report had been published and that they did not have any further details and hence it is too early to comment.
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