India’s ‘Mollywood’ Cinema Shaken by MeToo Abuse Allegations

Terrified for her safety, Indian actress Sreelekha Mitra recounts pushing chairs and a sofa against her hotel door after an award-winning veteran director allegedly sexually harassed her.

Mitra waited 15 years to speak about the incident, which is part of several cases that reveal the dark underbelly of India’s Malayalam-language “Mollywood” film industry, known for its critically acclaimed films.

Her decision to come forward was driven by an explosive government report that detailed widespread sexual harassment in an industry dominated by powerful men who often believe that an actress willing to kiss on screen would do the same in real life.

“That entire night I stayed awake,” Mitra, 51, told AFP.

Mitra had been invited to a gathering at the director’s house, where she was lured into his room under the pretense of a phone call with a cinematographer.

“He started playing with my hair and neck… I knew if I did not say anything then, his hand would roam around other parts of my body,” she said, describing the events from 2009, when she was 36.

She managed to leave and returned to her hotel, feeling petrified by what had happened.

Mitra’s case and nearly a dozen others have ignited a MeToo reckoning in Mollywood, with at least 10 prominent figures being accused, according to Indian media.

Mollywood, based in Kerala, is famous for its films that have strong, progressive themes, a stark contrast to the big dance and song numbers of Bollywood. The industry is prolific, producing up to 200 films a year, loved by southern India’s 37 million Malayalam speakers, and also dubbed and streamed across India and abroad.

Internationally, its films have won awards, including the 1999 satire “Marana Simhasanam” (“Throne of Death”), winner of the Camera d’Or at Cannes. The industry recently saw blockbuster success with “Manjummel Boys,” a survival thriller that grossed $29 million, the highest-grossing Malayalam movie ever and the fifth-most successful in India this year.

An industry report, released on August 19, highlighted that women actors faced the widespread “worst evil” of sexual harassment.

The report was released by the Hema Committee, headed by a former high court judge, after a leading Malayalam actress reported she was sexually assaulted in 2017.

Gopalakrishnan Padmanabhan, a prominent Malayalam actor better known by his stage name Dileep, was arrested for allegedly orchestrating the assault. He was imprisoned for three months before being released on bail. The case continues.

The release of the report has sparked a broader discussion on the chronic violence against women in the industry, encouraging individuals like Mitra to speak out publicly for the first time.

According to the report, women who considered speaking out about sexual assault were often silenced by threats to their lives and their families.

Award-winning actress Parvathy Thiruvothu, 36, called the investigation a “game changer” and a “historic moment.”

“There was this idea that women working in the industry should feel grateful for having been given an opportunity by the men who were hiring them,” said Thiruvothu, a member of the campaign group Women in Cinema Collective.

Allegations of abuse in Indian cinema are not new. The industry witnessed a wave of accusations in 2018, shortly after the MeToo movement erupted in Hollywood against disgraced US movie producer Harvey Weinstein.

However, Thiruvothu stated that the latest allegations are more significant than “MeToo Part Two.”

“It’s shaking everything,” she told AFP. “It isn’t an individual-to-individual complaint anymore. It’s about a systemic structure that has continued to fail women.”

Since the report, several top actors have been accused. The Association of Malayalam Movie Artists was dissolved following the resignation of its chief on “moral grounds,” with some members among the accused.

Ranjith Balakrishnan, 59, chairman of the state’s film academy, also resigned. Balakrishnan, who denies any wrongdoing, was the man Mitra accused of sexual harassment. The police have filed a case against him for outraging a woman’s modesty, a non-bailable offense.

Mitra, who until the release of the report had only mentioned the incident to an industry colleague, told AFP that Balakrishnan had misused “his power.”

Thiruvothu offered a message to all women in the film industry who have survived sexual assault: “You are a skilled artist… do not listen to anyone who tells you to find another job if it is so difficult for you.”

“This is your industry, as much as it is anybody else’s. Speak up, so that we are taking the space that is rightfully ours.”