In a YouTube channel interview uploaded almost two years ago, actor Shine Tom Chacko was seen flinging his mobile phone in the air, leaving the young woman interviewer stunned. His answers -- incoherent and downright arrogant — quickly became viral, with several people speculating that the actor was high on narcotics. Now, two years and many similar interviews later, the actor is absconding after he fled from a hotel room in Kochi amidst a narcotics raid.
While the incident seems to have suddenly awakened the Malayalam film industry to the drug usage menace on shooting sets, it is pertinent to probe why those like Shine keep getting work despite visible disrespect and indiscipline.
It was only a few days ago that actor Vincy Aloshious filed a complaint with the Kerala Film Chamber and the Internal Committee (IC) alleging drug use and sexual misconduct by a male co-actor. Though she did not take names, media reports quoted film sources as confirming that she was speaking about Shine.
Shine has, on several occasions, walked out of promotional interviews and belittled anchors, especially young women, by ridiculing them. He would often appear disinterested and restless, losing his cool when asked questions.
In 2024, during the promotions of his film Vivekanandan Viralaanu, his antics and constant interruptions made his co-actor Mareena Michael walk out. The film was directed by Kamal, with whom Shine first started out as an assistant director almost a decade ago. Neither the director nor other organisations from the industry intervened.
Sadly, the more bizarre his behaviour, the more interviews channels shot to capitalise on views.
However, it is interesting and quite concerning that Shine behaves better when the interviewers are senior male journalists. He also appears calmer when the promotional interview panel has male actors of stature like Mammootty.
Despite this, Shine has consistently been cast in films, most of them helmed by renowned actors and filmmakers. This suggests a collective sense of complacency, which remains uninterrupted no matter how many complaints pop up against the actor.
This is where the complexity of pinning all the blame for drug abuse in the Malayalam film industry on Shine, or smaller actors like him, lies. Though the issue has prominently come into focus only now, it has always persisted in plain sight.
In 2018, Hashir Mohammed, the scriptwriter of Dulquer Salman’s Neelakaasham Pachakkadal Chuvanna Bhoomi was apprehended in Kochi for attempted rape under the influence of synthetic drugs. An allegedly nude Hashir reportedly chased the woman down an apartment building.
At that time, several big and small actors were arrested in different places for buying, selling, and consuming psychotropic substances. News reports quoted then Excise Commissioner Rishi Raj Singh confirming that the consumption of substances like MDMA, brown sugar, hashish, and LSD, among others, is on the rise in the film fraternity. But none of this led to an extensive probe about the supply chain or the bigger fish at the end of them in the industry.
Six years later, in 2024, the Hema Committee, which investigated allegations of power abuse and harassment in Malayalam cinema, found that drug use is rampant on film sets. The Committee’s report also cited that this exacerbates the incidence of sexual harassment and puts survivors and whistleblowers at risk, because even ICs are populated by powerful men who protect one another.
Several police investigations on the rising drug trade in Kerala also reported that the drug mafia has deep roots in the film industry. In March this year, a film makeup man who worked in movies like Fahad Faasil’s Aavesham was arrested in Idukki with hybrid ganja. Though he was reportedly on his way to a film set for shooting, there was no probe into whether he was carrying the substance for other buyers.
However, there has so far been no proactive action regarding this by organisations like the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (A.M.M.A) or the Film Employees Federation of Kerala (FEFKA), the only trade union in the industry. The government, too, has been silent, despite enough evidence about the normalisation of drug use in the industry.
When asked about this, veteran director Kamal told the media that the issue must not be limited to relatively smaller-time artists like Shine or Sreenath Bhasi, another actor who has been called out for erratic behaviour and substance abuse. Kamal pointed out that many technicians, including directors, use drugs on film sets, normalising the practice.
Several industry insiders also observed that this leads filmmakers and technicians to behave like a clan, only working with other artists and technicians who use drugs. This lack of fairness in the process leads aspiring artists to lose work, often putting them under immense pressure to fit in.
But senior actor Renjini told the media that alcoholism has always been there on film sets, and it has only transitioned to drug use now. Her statements must also be viewed in the context of how, as a society, Kerala often romanticises men who are erratic alcoholics with a big temper by anointing them as ‘troubled geniuses’. That this makes a film set undemocratic and unsafe, especially for women, has never been anyone’s concern.
Notably, many of the industry veterans who are quick to call out drug abuse, labelling it a ‘young generation problem’, are tight-lipped when it comes to sexual harassment, gender pay parity, or casteism in the industry. Drug abuse is, for them, a selective tool to ‘discipline’ younger actors while nullifying the impact of alcohol abuse and other kinds of unsafe practices.
While all these discussions are eager to pin the blame on someone or the other, the real problem of regulating this highly fluid workplace remains unaddressed.
Mooting solutions to this problem, director Kamal told the media that change can only be effected if individuals decide to be more responsible. He further said that the government must chart out a code of conduct or some mechanism to monitor such tendencies on film sets.
However, the Women in Cinema Collective (WCC) has already compiled a Cinema Code of Conduct (CCC), which remains ignored by the film industry to date.
The CCC is a compilation of recommendations for a comprehensive film policy to make the Malayalam film industry safer and more equitable for all stakeholders. The Code suggests a zero tolerance policy towards working under the influence of any intoxicant. It says that such policies not only help monitor alcohol and substance abuse, but also encourage people to speak up against it.
What becomes evident here is that the Malayalam film industry did not really need Shine Tom Chacko’s case to blow up to realise that it has a drug abuse problem.
The consumption of alcohol and psychotropic substances on film sets has been well documented but long ignored. While we penalise offenders, we should also probe whether the problem is conveniently being limited to these individuals to shield bigger players.
Views expressed are the author’s own.