The legislation process to create a new law for workplace safety in Kerala’s entertainment industry should include more women, suggested Advocate Mitha Sudhindran, the amicus curiae appointed by the High Court to help draft the law. Mitha was looped in to make her recommendations based on the findings of the Hema Committee report, which revealed rampant sexual harassment and workplace indignity in the Malayalam film industry.
Two reports containing recommendations for a new law to oversee Kerala’s entertainment industry – a preliminary one and a second report – were submitted by Mitha on November 21, 2024, and January 16 this year, respectively.
The most important point, she highlights, is the need for a regulatory body (temporarily titled Kerala Entertainment Industry Regulatory Authority or KEIRA). She also points out the need for a concerted, multi-pronged strategy to tackle the various issues in the entertainment industry, beginning with the registration of all the stakeholders.
Mandatory registration of projects
Registration and creating an informative web portal is one of the first steps suggested in the amicus curiae report, alongside the declaration of rights and duties. All stakeholders must be aware of their legal rights and obligations, and the state has to have effective enforcement and redressal mechanisms. It must also ensure more representation and opportunities for women in the industry, the report says.
Another suggestion is organisation through registration -- which means every project (film, series etc) should be registered on a web portal, created exclusively for the industry. Mitha lists out the various laws that are already in existence that could be applicable to the industry.
However, to ensure that these laws are followed, there should be a regulatory authority, like the one used in real estate (K-RERA). All stakeholders -- from the producer and director to the artists and technicians -- should be made aware of their rights and obligations. The state government, it is suggested, should compile a 'regulatory compliance blue print' detailing the regulations applicable to the entertainment industry. When a project is being registered on the web portal, it should be mandatory that there is a declaration that all the laws are complied with.
The registration process will include title registration, currently being done by the Film Chamber of Commerce, but with the new law, it will be done by KEIRA. The second step of the registration is that a project should get an exhibition certificate from the regulatory authority before it is distributed or exhibited in any form. Exhibitors are to ensure that the project has been registered with KEIRA before they issue this certificate. If this is not done, the exhibitor's license will be cancelled and the producer can be penalised.
It is recommended in the report that the registration of stakeholders be voluntary. While this includes all those who work in a production unit, it does not include the intermediaries or middle men who work between the production control unit and junior artistes and such others. The Hema Committee report has been clear about the many exploitations of junior artistes, mostly at the hands of the intermediaries.
It is also suggested that the registration of industry collectives (the likes of Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes, Film Employees Federation of India, Women in Cinema Collective etc) be made mandatory. Here, a provision is suggested that once the collective is registered, all the members in it will be automatically registered. Further, to incentify registration of individuals, the report says that consideration for awards or tax benefits and such could be limited only to registered stakeholders. The whole registration process of the stakeholder should be simple.
Details on the web portal
All the basic information of the registered stakeholders will be available on the web portal for the public. This way, using a unique number given for the project, anyone can access details on who are the main stakeholders in the project. The number should be displayed at shooting locations and so on, so that anyone who has a grievance or a query about the project can use it to access information on the portal. And all the grievances can be taken before the regulatory authority.
The web portal should also carry, along with a stakeholder's filmography and basic details, the disputes -- if any -- that they have been involved in. This is to bring transparency and thereby accountability. Publishing the project details on the portal is also meant to help avoid the dependency on middlemen.
Special registration for newcomers
A special registration is also recommended for newcomers, since they do not have access to any of the associations until they are a few films old. They are the most vulnerable lot, as mentioned in the Hema Committee report, asked of sexual favours for work opportunities more than experienced artistes.
This special registration can be for a limited period, during which they can access the basic details on the portal, available to the public, as well as casting calls, which should also be permitted only by registered projects. Before they register, the newcomers should also have mandatorily attended training to identify sexual harassment, and what they could do to retaliate and report it.
However, the amicus curiae report makes it clear that sexual harassment is not limited to the entertainment industry and so efforts should be made to tackle it across industries. Mitha recommends that the state government ensure that the SHe-Box portal brought out by the Union government last year is operational within the state.
The nature of training (of what comes under the Prevention of Sexual Harassment or PoSH Act) should also be effective, and in the case of the entertainment industry, the KEIRA can have a supervisory role wherein someone can report the lack of an Internal Committee on the set.
Agreements
Another major issue that the Hema Committee report mentioned is the lack of written agreements in a project. The amicus curiae report suggests that agreements should be uploaded online, and if there is no such written agreement, a template agreement will be operational. Such templates can be revised periodically. Any dispute coming out of the agreement will go before the regulatory authority, instead of a civil court.
The regulatory authority can then do three things -- conciliate (mediate with all the parties involved), and if that does not work, redirect it to the appropriate forum, and thirdly if there is no other forum for it, refer the case to the tribunal. Setting up this tribunal for the entertainment industry is also part of the recommendations of the report.
Apart from resolving disputes, it should have the power to issue orders, impose penalties and summon evidence and witnesses. The jurisdiction of the tribunal will be over matters referred it to by KEIRA as well as decisions taken by KEIRA.
Next step: conclave
The work of the amicus curiae is done, after the second report has been filed. Now, it is the prerogative of the Kerala government to take a call on what parts of it should be incorporated in the new law.
The government is contemplating a conclave to take suggestions from all the stakeholders and the High Court has asked for details of the conclave to be submitted by the first week of March.
