Malayalam film producer Sandra Thomas has gone public with a threatening phone call she received two and a half months ago from a production controller. She tells TNM that she chose to speak out after learning that the same group of people who had threatened her is now filing a defamation case against her.
The call, she alleges, came from a production controller called Renny Joseph. The same night, she says, he also posted a voice message in a Whatsapp group, using an even harsher tone and threatening to kill both her and her father, Thomas. According to Sandra, his actions were in response to a statement she had made in an interview about the role of production controllers in the film industry.
“I filed a complaint with the police in March, but little has been done in the case. Even the FIR was registered with only bailable offences,” Sandra says. She adds she had anticipated some form of retaliation from the time she filed a complaint against the general secretary of the Film Employees Federation of Kerala (FEFKA), B Unnikrishnan, who is also a film producer and director.
“At the time, not much had happened. But film directors like Jose Thomas and Santhivila Dinesh had put out Youtube videos shaming me and I filed a complaint with the cyber cell. However, they did this again and there was still no action. When I contacted the cyber cell, they said I should file a fresh complaint.”
Along with Renny, another production controller named Mukesh Tripunithura also sent voice messages against Sandra in the Whatsapp group, she says. “Action should also be taken against the group admins, since they did nothing about all these threatening messages,” Sandra adds.
The men were apparently outraged by Sandra’s statement in an interview, where she said that production controllers often behaved like artist managers and did little else in production. “After this, I received calls from others in the FEFKA union who said that they could also give evidence of the looting of production controllers. This team of production controllers don’t spare anyone, taking a cut even from junior artists who receive only one third of the little amount that was promised to them. It is a privileged group, enjoying all the power, since even the membership to the union costs a hefty amount and few can afford it,” she alleges.
Sandra says she has been threatened for speaking out about the issues in the industry. One of the few women in Malayalam film production, Sandra has been in the eye of the storm ever since she came out in public about issues faced by women producers, soon after the release of the Hema Committee report last year. The report, redacted before publication, spoke about the systemic issues in the film industry including the levels of abuse faced by women. Sandra spoke about a nexus group formed by men from different departments, who controlled everything and were powerful enough to decide who got to work. She was later expelled from the Kerala Film Producers Association.
In January this year, Sandra filed her complaint against B Unnikrishnan, accusing him of causing her to lose work opportunities.
“This is why many women do not wish to proceed with their complaints even after the Hema Committee report came out. The goon gangs will threaten them. They’d first try to influence them, promising them gifts, and if that does not work, they become threatening. They’d be left all alone in their fight,” Sandra says.
