This is the victory of the fearless heroines of Malayalam cinema, Justice Hema Committee report exposed the truth

Himmat-e-marda to madad-e-khuda… means only when a man has courage, God helps him/her. In our male-dominated society, even in proverbs, courage has been associated with men, but these days the whole country is talking about the courage of those fearless heroines of Malayalam cinema, who went against the whole universe and raised their voice against the exploitation that happened to them, who stood up for their and their colleagues’ honor without caring about the consequences and fought until they won. It is the courage of these women, due to which the dark deeds of the Malayalam film industry could come to the fore. In fact, the credit for bringing Justice Hema Committee into existence goes to Women in Cinema Collective (WCC), an organization of women artists of Malayalam cinema, on whose appeal the Kerala government formed this committee in the year 2017. These women members of WCC, who united to get justice for one of their fellow actresses, have today forced the entire Mollywood to look into its dark side.

A handful of women shook the reputation of Mollywood

The foundation of Women in Cinema Collective (WCC) was laid in the year 2017, when a famous Malayalam actress was sexually assaulted by four men in a car and the involvement of powerful actor Dileep was revealed in this case. Dileep was then arrested but later released on bail. he/she is still on bail in this case. Despite this, as soon as Dileep got bail, the Malayalam Artist Association (AMMA) inducted him/her into the organization with much fanfare, which was nothing less than an insult to the victim actress. Then many women members of AMMA opposed this decision and famous Malayalam artists, filmmakers, technicians like Revathi, Anjali Menon, Rima Kaligal, Parvati Thiruvothu, Manju Warrier united and started the Women in Cinema Collective to get justice for the actress. This organization strongly raises its voice on issues like basic needs of women in Mollywood, harassment. Due to this, these female artists and technicians had to lose their jobs and also had to face an undeclared ban. A large section of the industry started avoiding working with them. Still, they stood firm by holding each other’s hand. They got the Kerala High Court to ensure that the Protection of Women Sexual Harassment at Workplace (POSH) Act is strictly followed in every Malayalam film production unit and an internal complaint committee is formed to hear complaints. At the same time, they appealed to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to investigate the sexual harassment of the actress, on which the Kerala State Government constituted a three-member Justice Hema Committee in the year 2017, whose report has opened a new chapter of #MeToo 2.0 in Mollywood.

‘The Kerala Story’ of these actresses is terrifying

Today, the report of Justice Hema Committee has proved that in the Malayalam industry, which makes progressive films in favour of women on screen like ‘The Great Indian Kitchen’, ‘Jai Jai Jai Jai Ho’ and National Award winning ‘Aattar’, female artists are exploited at every level behind the screen. Some powerful actors, directors, producers of the industry abuse, cast couch and sexually harass female artists and ruin their careers if they protest. After the report came out, many actresses like Revathi Sampath, Meenu Munir, Srilekha Mitra, Sridevika also showed courage and disturbed the sleep of Mollywood by telling their horrific stories of harassment at the hands of well-known accused like Mukesh, Jayasurya, Siddiqui, Maniyanpilla Raju, Ranjit, Tulsidas, Baburaj. Therefore, action is also being taken on these allegations under pressure from all sides. For example, after the allegations of sexual harassment, Kerala Police has registered an FIR against filmmaker Ranjit and senior actor Siddiqui. Ranjit had to resign from the post of President of Kerala Film Academy. At the same time, the President of Malayalam Movie Artist Association (AMMA), superstar Mohanlal and his/her 17-member committee have resigned from their posts citing moral responsibility for not supporting these victimised female artists. This is, in a way, the victory of the long battle of these courageous women of Malayalam cinema, who tried their best to change the situation at the ground level.

The campaign weakened in Bollywood

After the MeToo movement in India in 2018, women filmmakers of Bollywood also united against the accused. Then about a dozen female filmmakers of Bollywood like Kiran Rao, Meghna Gulzar, Zoya Akhtar, Alankrita Shrivastava, Gauri Shinde, Konkona Sen Sharma, Nandita Das, Nitya Mehra, Reema Kagti, Ruchi Narain unanimously decided not to work with the accused. However, with time, all the MeToo accused like Vikas Bahl and Sajid Khan returned to the set and spotlight. Vikas Bahl has since made many films from Good Boy to Shaitan. At the same time, Sajid Khan has appeared in Bigg Boss 16. At that time, the victims of Sajid’s exploitation may have raised their voice, but famous actresses like Shehnaaz Gill were seen praising Sajid, while her cousin Zoya Akhtar also kept quiet.