In February 2017, a leading Malayalam actress was abducted and sexually assaulted by a group of men while returning from a shoot. A police investigation accused the actor Dileep of being the mastermind behind the attack.
This horrific incident prompted the formation of the Women in Cinema Collective in May that year. Among the WCC’s earliest actions was to petition Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to form a committee to look into sexual harassment and gender discrimination in the Malayalam film industry.
The committee was headed by former High Court of Kerala judge K Hema. Actor T Sarada and retired Principal Secretary of the Kerala government KB Valsalakumari were the other members. Although the panel’s report was finalised in 2019, the findings were not released because of legal challenges.
When the report finally came out on August 19 this year, it send shockwaves not just in Kerala but far beyond.
Apart from rampant sexual harassment, the report pointed to illegal labour practices (such as junior artists and technicians being denied basic facilities) as well as the existence of a “mafia group” that had untrammelled power over actors or filmmakers.
The findings continue to roil Kerala. Since it was released. women have publicly alleged sexual harassment by prominent filmmakers and actors. Industry unions and associations have been caught on the back foot for underplaying the scale of the problem.
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For the Women in Cinema Collective, the report is bittersweet. On the one hand, the troubling revelations support what the WCC’s 42 members have been saying all along. On the other hand, the political fallout has eclipsed their initial intentions.
For a long view on the situation, Scroll spoke to Bina Paul, one of WCC’s founding members. A Film and Television Institute of India alumnus, Paul has edited acclaimed films (including Amma Ariyan, Mitr: My Friend and Munnariyippu) and directed The Sound of Silence, a documentary about gender segregation in colleges in Kerala. Paul also served for years as the Artistic Director of the International Film Festival of Kerala, and currently heads the Dharamshala International Film Festival.
In the interview, Paul spoke of the short-term and possible long-term implications of a study that has bared some of the Kerala film industry’s worst-kept secrets.
The report is a vindication of the Women in Cinema Collective’s views. But given the fallout, the feeling isn’t one of victory, is it?
Absolutely not. What the report has unleashed in its wake has been disturbing.
It has been very painful to hear so many women coming out with their stories. In hindsight, you may feel that this is good and is part of what is required for a little closure. But the first few days of listening to these stories was horrendous.
The main reaction has been one of utter shock. Some of the women from WCC who work deeply in the industry probably knew this, but the findings were beyond my expectations, at least. We have been saying for many years that things are not so good. This has finally appeared in black and white.
Apart from sexual harassment, the kind of stuff that Justice Hema has talked about has been surprising for everybody. Of course, there is disbelief from most of the people in the industry. There has also been surprise in civil society and government.
The report redacts the names of alleged perpetrators of assault or questionable practices. What is your view on the anonymity that was offered to alleged predators in particular?
My view is that while we did know of many powerful sources behind such behaviour, we were not pursuing a blame game. Personally, I was not so concerned about the redaction of the names. Even at WCC, we were much more invested in the report’s findings. It was far more important to read the report on the basis on whatever data Justice Hema had collected.
That said, in the light of all that has happened, there are some horrendous perpetrators, and since the redacted portions contain references to them, it needs to be taken very seriously.
While the public focus has been on sexual assault, the report talks about other long-standing problems, particularly poor working conditions, the lack of formal contracts, and the presence of a power group controlling whole careers.
The first letter that WCC wrote to the Chief Minister contained references to the working conditions, the lack of facilities, pay issues, discrimination and human rights violations. These issues were so pushed under the carpet that we felt that a study was needed. We did talk about the security of women and sexual harassment, but we were also concerned with working conditions, which is why we wanted the committee.
Justice Hema has systematically hit at some very hard truths. What the report has achieved is to point out that the film industry is an unorganised, almost feudal kind of structure.
The report also mentions WCC members being targetted by filmmakers because of their activism.
It’s always the twisted logic of shifting the target onto the women, saying that anybody who asks a question is the problem. You are powerful enough to stop work, block people or even their social acceptance by not calling them for shows.
A lot of our members have spoken out about this. We know that there has been a systematic kind of pulling down of women who speak up.
In the wake of the report, the film star Mohanlal resigned as the head of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes. Mohanlal as well as several others have spoken of attempts to “tarnish the image of the Malayalam film industry”.
Every women’s movement or any woman speaking up has always had a patriarchal pushback, saying that the women are troublemakers.
People go on saying that the Malayalam film industry is a family that needs to be protected. That is what do families do, isn’t it – they always hide their dirty linen.
Also, in the face of so much coming out, who are you trying to protect? Are you saying that bringing it out is wrong, or are you saying that there is wrong? I am not into this image story. We are not talking about the image, but harsh reality. We are not talking from outside this so-called family, but as insiders, saying, let’s do something together. This is not about making trouble, but making things clear.
Malayalam cinema has been celebrated beyond Kerala for low-cost, economical filmmaking practices. One of the report’s implications is that feudal networks have enabled films that benefit only a few and depend on cheap labour.
While there are many large-budget films in Kerala, the report certainly seems to suggest that there is a lot of inequality. We know that small-budget films don’t pay. The question is, is there systematic discrimination? If nobody’s paid, then nobody’s paid, you’re working for the love of cinema. But if you are not paid on parity with your fellow workers, there is a problem.
I’m not so sure whether we can say that the industry stands on this kind of discrimination. I’m just saying that we have to apply our minds. Certainly, regional language films have smaller budgets. But are these budgets allocated without discrimination on the basis of gender or profession? A deeper study is required, which is exactly what WCC has been talking about.
There’s some chatter about boycotting or avoiding working with certain actors or directors who might evade prosecution. Is this feasible, or even possible?
I wish it could be, but perhaps it’s not.
A lot of things also arise from the lack of any viewpoint or an understanding of gender. It is unforgivable that some of the people involved are in positions of power or authority. But for the majority, what is required is some kind of healing, to say that what you have been doing is not on at all. When you have a woman cinematographer, you don’t comment about her appearance or clothes. You take her seriously.
You need to hold people responsible. You have to call out people who have proved themselves to have misused their positions. What is also required is a greater understanding of what it means to live in a contemporary world where woman are equal.
The Kerala government has set up a special investigative task force of police officers who are contacting the women and helping them file cases. These decisions have to be individual. For some women, talking itself is a kind of closure. For others, they need to take it all the way.
It’s difficult to say. We know what the legal system is like. You have to be prepared for a very long flight. What happened in 2017 [the actor’s sexual assault] is still rolling around in the courts with no closure in sight.
So what are the possible remedies?
There’s no black and white, there’s no prescription.
Every person who has gone through this kind of experience has to be counselled to understand what it means. What we are also saying is, let’s put into place systems that do not let this happen again – whether it’s POSH [Prevention of Sexual Harassment at Workplace Act] being implemented or gender sensitisation or a tribunal as Justice Hema suggested.
These women are so courageous. They have to make their individual choices. We at WCC can only say that we are with you, whichever way you choose to go.
I am not a person for corporatisation, nor am I for the kind of regulation where there is somebody sitting over your head and watching you. But there should be systems in place.
How do you register a film? How do you register your internal committee? What happens if this internal committee doesn’t work? Are there templates for contracts, or time schedules? These are the kinds of things that you can do yourself as an industry. You have associations and unions and all sorts of systems that can make it work.
This is what the Hema Committee has brought to the fore. I wish everybody has the patience. After the initial shock and shake-ups, there will be or there should be a serious study of the report.
We are certainly doing this at the WCC. Other civil society group are looking at the labour issues. All these efforts together will ensure that the report is not a one-affair. It will be unfair to Justice Hema, to the women who have spoken up, to the workers in the workers in the industry.
Standing in a position of suspicion all the time is counter-productive. Let’s see what happens.
You have been an editor, filmmaker, teacher and film festival director. What has been your own experience of sexism in the Malayalam film industry?
If I look at it truthfully, as a film editor, I was very young and I worked with distinguished directors. But I must say that I was flummoxed by the very male kind of situation in which I found myself.
As I went on in my career, as the artistic director of a film festival, I was surrounded by patriarchy. Nobody would attack me directly, but there was so much attitude around me. Now whether that is because I was a woman or an unbearable person, I don't know.
Certainly, it was patriarchal. It was men all the time. I had very few women to talk to. That was the kind of space. You had to navigate all the time, not just in the film world, but everywhere. This constant dealing with the male ego is quite a story.
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