India is being caught by a new #metoo wave in cinema. This time it affects the Kerala film industry, nicknamed Mollywood, which produces about two hundred films a year in Malayalam. Its competitor Bollywood, based in Bombay, had been shaken in 2018 for a first scandal.
On August 19, a bombshell report was made public revealing widespread sexual harassment and abuse. It comes from the Hema commission named after the judge who presides over it, set up in 2017 under pressure from a group of actresses by the local communist government following the abduction and sexual assault by several men of a star, Karthika Menon.
In rare instances, the victim had filed a complaint, and investigators discovered that actor and producer Gopalakrishnan Padmanabhan, a superstar with 130 films to his name, was the instigator of this kidnapping, a “punitive operation” akin to a personal vendetta. He was formally charged in 2017, arrested, and then released on bail after 85 days in jail. The case is still pending.
“Mafia of powerful men”
For two years, the Hema commission held confidential interviews with all concerned, actors, actresses, but also all the handymen, from costume designers to make-up artists. It submitted its findings in December 2019 to the Kerala government, but the latter swept the thick 290-page document under the carpet. It has just been published, five years late, by order of the state information commission, on 6 July 2024. An actor’s appeal further delayed its publication, but the Kerala High Court rejected it.
The report, written in about sixty pages to conceal the identity of witnesses and defendants, is edifying about this industry, described as being under the influence and control of a “mafia of powerful men”, a group of about fifteen people, and within which “Sexual harassment against women is endemic”.
The victims testify to the labor blackmail by actors, producers and directors, who forced actresses, especially beginners, to accept ” commitment “ either “settings”that is, sex for roles or career progression. “Men in the industry openly demand sex without any qualms, as if it were a granted right”the authors write.
The commission notes dangerous working conditions on film sets, with the absence of basic facilities such as toilets or changing rooms, forcing women to relieve themselves in isolated places or abstain from drinking water and alcohol, with caravans reserved for leading actresses. Location shoots are particularly prone to attacks. One actress said a drunken director slammed the door of her hotel room so hard at night that she feared it would collapse. The only way for leading actors to protect themselves is to be accompanied on set by a parent or loved one.
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