MP Nathanael | Hema Commission Report Exposes Casting Couch Problem in Film Industry

In April 2018, Sri Reddy, a Telugu actress made her debut in the film Nenu Namma Abbardam back in 2011, followed by two more films, sat on a topless protest right outside the office of the Movie Artists Association in Hyderabad for refusing to grant her membership to the association. Membership to the association is mandatory for further roles after the completion of three films. During the protest, she revealed that she had to go through the casting couch to get the films she had acted in and that was the only route in the entire Telugu film industry.

Bollywood is no exception. Actress Kangana Ranaut did not mince her words to reveal that every actress has to submit to the sexual favours demanded by the directors or heroes of the films to get a place in the film. Actress Suchitra Pillai has admitted from her own experience that sexual favours were demanded by powerful film personalities. She refused certain films because she did not want to make any “compromises”.

Even male actors sometimes have to go through the ordeal of sexual advances from directors if they are struggling to get a role in the film. However, they have the option to just walk away and approach other directors for roles in their films. After going through the ordeal, actors like Rajeev Khandelwal and Ranveer Singh had turned down offers to appear in certain films.

The formation of the Justice Hema Committee came in the wake of the sexual assault of a prominent Malayalam film actress by actor Dileep and his accomplices in a moving car in Kochi in February 2017, which had led to an outcry in Kerala. Some of the leading actresses and women in the industry formed the Women in Cinema Collective (WCC) and demanded action against the perpetrators, besides looking into the issues faced by the female actors and artistes.

A three-member committee headed by Justice K. Hema, tasked with looking into various issues faced by the women, submitted its report to the Kerala government in December 2019. It was not made public as Justice Hema had written to the government in February 2020 not to release the 295-page report due to the “sensitive nature of the information”.

Following a petition under the Right to Information Act and the intervention of the Kerala High Court, the report was released after redacting 63 pages that were considered highly sensitive. The high court has demanded that the entire report be sent to the court in a sealed envelope to resolve “how to protect these vulnerable women and what action can be taken against the perpetrators of the crime”.

Now that the report is public and making headlines in the media, triggering debates, actors like Sreelekha Mitra, Revathi Sampath and Minu Muneer have openly alleged sexual harassment or assault by powerful personalities in Kerala’s film industry. Following allegations by Sreelekha Mitra, a Bengali actor, that Ranjith had misbehaved with her, he resigned as the chairman of the government-run Kerala Chalachitra Academy. While Sreelekha has filed a formal complaint with the Kochi police, 18 others have registered complaints with police stations, all of which will be handed over to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up to conduct the investigations.

Another actor, Minu Muneer, came forward with allegations against actor Mukesh, now a CPI(M) MLA in Kochi, Jayasurya, and two others for sexually exploiting her during the shooting of a film. Since then, there have been calls for Mukesh’s resignation as MLA.

While actor Siddique resigned from Association of Malayalam Movies Artists (AMMA) as general secretary after actor Revathy Sampath revealed that he had sexually exploited her, the entire 17-member executive committee of AMMA led by its president, senior actor Mohanlal, had resigned and the committee was dissolved last week. Elections for the new committee will be held within two months.

With another actress, Sonia Malhar, joining the survivors’ bandwagon, many more victims may come out against their perpetrators, but at a high price, as they may never be offered another role. Those whose days are past their prime have nothing to lose. Further punitive action may be taken against those who dared to solicit sexual favours from women seeking roles in films after the SIT report was filed.

The Hema Committee report, however, has dwelt on the issue of sexual exploitation of women in Malayalam cinema and has highlighted other issues such as lack of basic facilities of toilets, lack of proper transportation, discrimination in payment of remuneration to male and female actors and artistes, online harassment and absence of a grievance mechanism. These are issues that can be resolved by the directors without much ado. But setting up a grievance mechanism requires government intervention. Since internal grievance committees cannot be effective enough in film projects, the formation of judicial tribunals

under consideration by the government. Immediate steps should be taken to monitor the implementation of the recommendations of the Justice Hema Committee report at the ground level in a time-bound manner. The #MeToo movement may soon point out that the powerful and the powerful are bracing themselves to refute the allegations of their victims.