Popular Malayalam actors Grace Antony and Saniya Iyyappan were allegedly sexually assaulted during the promotion of their movie at the Hilite Mall in Kerala’s Kozhikode on Tuesday, September 27. A video of Saniya slapping a person in the crowd after he misbehaved with her has been doing the rounds on social media. Both the actors went on to share their ordeal on social media.
Recounting the incident through an Instagram post, Saniya wrote: “The event at the mall was extremely packed with people and the security was struggling to handle and maintain the crowd. After the event, I and one of my co stars were leaving and some guy misbehaved with my colleague, and she did not even get a chance to see or react because of the rush and the crowd. After that I also encountered a similar act of misogyny and I reacted to it in shock as you have watched in the video. I wish no one has to face this kind of unwanted trauma in their life (sic).” She went on to add that there will be consequences for violence against women, and that action will be taken against these misogynistic individuals.
Grace too shared a similar post on her Instagram page in Malayalam. “I had a chilling experience while attending the promotional event of my new movie at the Kozhikode Hilite Mall. Kozhikode is a place that I love. But while we were returning after the programme, a person who was standing in the crowd grabbed me,” she wrote, going on to ask if the people around us were so frustrated.
“We have gone to many places as part of our film’s promotion, but nowhere else did we face such a horrible experience. One of my costars who was with me at the time also had a similar experience. She reacted to it, but I was not able to. I was frozen,” she added.