Actor, director and film producer Aashiq Abu has strongly denounced sexual harassment accused, actor Alencier. In a Facebook post published on his page on Friday evening, Aashiq Abu wrote that Alencier had been accused of repeated sexual harassment by actors and directors who had worked on many different films with him. Aashiq said, “He wears his character flaws as an adornment. Now that I have seen his true colours, I feel sincerely ashamed that I worked with him on some films.”
Aashiq ended his post with the words “congratulations, Divya!” in a show of appreciation for the actor who came out with the allegations against Alencier. Alencier and Aashiq Abu worked together in the movies Maheshinte Prathikaram (2016) and Mayaanadhi (2017).
Alencier Lopez’s name arose in the recent wave of #MeToo allegations after actor Divya Gopinath spoke about the harassment she faced at his hands on the sets of the film Aabhaasam. Aabhasam director Jubith Namradath also supported Divya’s allegations, after which more allegations against Alencier and his behaviour on sets have surfaced.
Divya, who first detailed her experience with Alencier anonymously on October 15, and then revealed her identity of October 16, has made a complaint about Alencier to the Women in Cinema Collective. She has presented her case in front of the Justice Hema Commission, which was set up by the current LDF government in Kerala to study gender gap in the film industry. She said that initially, she would have been satisfied if Alencier merely apologised to her, but has decided to take further action upon discovering that other women had been harassed by him too.
Divya had also said that she did not have faith in the Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes any longer after seeing their treatment of the case of the actor who was assaulted in February 2017.