Why are India’s biggest film stars silent?

A recent report detailing poor working conditions and widespread sexual harassment of women in Malayalam films is causing major upheaval in India’s entertainment industry.

But the messages of solidarity and support have come mostly from women. Critics say the silence from powerful men, including India’s biggest and most beloved stars, is deafening.

Based on testimonies from 51 people from the Kerala film industry, the Hema Commission report exposes decades of exploitation, saying that “women were asked to make themselves available for sex on demand” and were constantly told to make “compromises and adjustments” if they wanted work.

The panel was formed in 2017 after Women in Cinema Collective (WCC), formed by a group of women working in Malayalam cinema, petitioned the government after a top actress was sexually assaulted by a group of men, allegedly at the behest of a top male actor.

Their 290-page report was published last month, with parts of it edited out to hide the identities of survivors and those accused of harassment.

But since its release on August 19, several women have spoken out about their ordeals and more than a dozen police complaints have been filed against male stars, producers, directors and other influential men.

The state government has set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the allegations. The Kerala High Court has asked the SIT to investigate the cases mentioned in the report, raising hopes that the survivors will eventually get justice.

Women across Indian film industries, including the largest and hugely popular Bollywood, have repeatedly spoken out about the casting couch – the practice of men asking for sexual favours in exchange for roles – and the widespread sexual harassment they face.

“The rot is as deep as the ocean in all Indian film industries,” film critic and author Shubhra Gupta told the BBC. “We will not find a single female artist in the country who has not suffered. If everyone came and complained, it would take us decades to address all those complaints.”

The sordid revelations about the extent of the rot in Malayalam cinema have made headlines and the findings have been discussed on primetime TV. Deedi Damodaran, a WCC member, told the BBC that the response has been “overwhelming”.

“Some women have now said they had to flee the industry because of the terrible things that happened to them. They don’t have proof, but they have some kind of closure by talking about their experiences.”

Many of them, she says, have spoken out despite being trolled and insulted on social media.

The report has also caused a stir in other film industries, with calls for reforms in regional industries in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka.

In Telangana, pressure has been mounting on the government to publish a report on the Telugu film industry that has been waiting to see the light of day for two years. An inquiry was ordered after an emerging actress, Sri Reddy, protested by stripping down to her underwear in public in 2018.to attract attention to the sexual exploitation of women in the industry”.

West Bengal has set up a commission to probe allegations of sexual abuse in the Bengali film industry, actress Ritabhari Chakraborty said. This, she added, would “purify the industry of predators”.

Women in Tamil and Kannada cinema have also petitioned state governments to improve their working conditions.

Veteran Tamil actress Radhika Sarathkumar told the BBC that the Hema committee report has created a lot of awareness and “men will be scared now”.

“It’s time for women in film to unite, speak out and put an end to this nonsense,” she said.

But the lack of support from men in the industry is disappointing, says Damodaran.

Malayalam superstars Mohanlal And Mammoth welcomed the report but said nothing should be done to harm the industry.

“These heroes are worshipped as beings larger than life itself, but we are waiting for them to take a heroic stand,” Damodaran told the BBC.

In Tamil Nadu, actors and politicians Kamal Haasan and Vijay were noted to have remained silent, while Rajinikanth was criticised for claiming ignorance of the report 10 days after its release.

“The harassment happens to all of us, how come men don’t know about it? Maybe the male actors compartmentalize, maybe they choose not to see it,” Sarathkumar told the BBC. “It’s very sad that every time the responsibility falls on the women to protect themselves.”

Some have also pointed out that the biggest names in Bollywood – Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan, Salman Khan, Aamir Khan and Akshay Kumar – have chosen to remain silent.

Gupta says their silence may be deafening, but it is not unexpected. “I would have been very surprised if there had been a backlash. We saw what happened in 2018 after the #MeToo movement first started in Bollywood after actress Tanushree Dutta accused an actor allegedly behaved inappropriately towards her on a film set in 2008.”

“For a while there was a wave of support and it looked like Bollywood would step in and do something about it. But then it all got contained. None of the men were affected, they all went back to doing what they were doing. In fact, the women who complained were not given jobs.”

A major criticism of Bollywood is that, unlike other industries, none of the leading actresses address gender issues.

Dutta, who received little support from her A-list colleagues and has since claimed that she was denied employment, and has described the Hema Commission report as “useless“, adding that previous reports on making workplaces safer for women had not helped.

According to Gupta, stars are unable to speak out because they want to avoid problems for themselves.

“I think they keep quiet because they know the stakes are high, they are afraid of not getting work in the industry. Remember when Aamir Khan or Shahrukh Khan spoke about intolerance? They got heavily trolled and lost work.”

However, Damodaran says the response to the report gives her reason to be optimistic.

“The film industry in India is deeply patriarchal and misogynistic. But we cannot continue with the kind of sexism and misogyny that women face in the workplace. Things will change – and they must.”