Shocking revelations have been made about the Malayalam film industry. The Justice Hema Committee Report was released on Monday. According to PTI, this report talks about sexual harassment faced by women in the Malayalam film industry. The report also says that women are offered jobs in exchange for sexual relations.
Several women made these accusations
Many women have alleged that they were forced to make compromises even before they started working. Since then, concerns have been raised about the safety of women artists in the Malayalam film industry. Let me tell you that the government constituted the Justice Hema Committee in 2019. The committee studied the issues faced by women in the Malayalam film industry. Important details about sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse of women have been exposed in this report.
Five years after the report was submitted to the government, a copy of it was given to the media under the RTI Act. The report says that female artists had to face harassment. This also includes incidents where drunk men knocked on the doors of the rooms of female artists in the film industry.
Female artists are given code names
The report also notes that many women who are victims of sexual harassment hesitate to report it to the police out of fear. According to the report, female artists who are willing to commit themselves are given code names and those who are not willing to do so are not offered work. “Women are offered acting or any other work in film with the demand that they have sexual relations. As I have already said, women are asked to commit themselves, which means they are asked to have sexual relations,” the report reads.
Lack of written contracts is also a big problem in the Malayalam film industry.
The lack of a written contract is used by some to deny artists and professionals even the remuneration promised orally. One example is that of an actress, the main character in a film, who was forced to do an intimate sequence. When asked to take more revealing photos, she fled the set without demanding her pay for the days worked. However, the director stated that unless she personally went to Kochi, he would not remove the intimate parts that had already been filmed.
The Hema Committee maintains that an Internal Complaints Committee may prove ineffective because powerful people may threaten or coerce CCI members to handle the complaint in the manner they wish. It also raises concerns regarding the secrecy of information disclosed to the CCI if it is staffed by industry insiders, compounding the ordeal of complainants. The committee recommends that the government create a suitable statute and set up a tribunal to address all the challenges faced by women in films.
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