Sexual harassment in Tamil cinema too, says actress

The aftershocks of the recent scandal of sexual harassment crimes in the Malayalam film industry have now reached Tamil Nadu. Famous actor and producer Kutti Padmini has exposed similar crimes in Tamil television. In an interview to a TV channel, Padmini made similar allegations that many women had committed suicide due to the constant sexual harassment in the industry and many more women were suffering in silence.

Padmini was troubled by the mistreatment of women in the industry and argued that like any other profession such as medicine or law, there is no need to look at the profession with what she described as a “flesh trade”. It was particularly disturbing to note that heterosexual directors and technicians working on serials often expect women to provide them with sexual favours in exchange for work. “Since there is no way to identify sexual harassment, some women do not report it. Other women tolerate it because of the good pay,” she said.

Another topic that Padmini spent a lot of time on was how whistleblowers face challenges in the industry. She mentioned the consequences of speaking out, citing singer Chinmayi and actor Sri Reddy as examples, both of whom were blacklisted after alleging sexual harassment. Chinmayi, who condoned verbal abuse against actor Radha Ravi, was banned for not adhering to the policy that new members had to renew their membership, as mentioned, while Sri Reddy’s membership card was withheld by the acting fraternity, preventing her from acting in television serials.

Padmini also hit out at the delay in investigating complaints of sexual harassment in Tamil cinemas, drawing attention to a recent comment in this regard by actor Suresh Gopi, who said that where is the evidence to prove something like this. “How can anyone provide evidence? They can conduct lie detector tests like the CBI does,” she said, talking about how difficult it is to prove the guilt of an offender in such cases.

Padmini herself recalled that she too was a victim of sexual abuse as a child artist and went on to narrate how she was thrown out of a Hindi film project after her mother complained about the exploitation. The incident Lock Focused On One’s Focus This helped to highlight the nature of the problem and the difficulties faced by the victims.

The new findings in Tamil Nadu follow the release of the Justice Hema Committee report, which revealed serious cases of harassment of women in the Malayalam film industry.