Tamil superstar Rajinikanth said that he did not know anything about the Justice Hema Committee report, which has been creating ripples across many film industries in the country. The recently published report established the wide prevalence of sexual harassment against women and other workplace related issues in the Malayalam film industry. The move has triggered a new wave of MeToo in Kerala, with several survivors from the film industry naming their perpetrators.
Tamil actor Radikaa Sarathkumar had also responded to the Hema Committee report saying she had discovered hidden cameras installed in caravans of women actors on a Malayalam movie set. She said that sexual misconduct was rampant in all the film industries.
However, on Sunday, September 1, during a brief media interaction, while responding to a question about whether a similar committee should be constituted in the Tamil film industry to study the problems of working women, Rajinikanth said, “Sorry, I don’t know anything about it.”
The Justice Hema Committee was formed by the Kerala Government in 2017 based on a petition by the Women in Cinema Collective (WCC) to study the challenges faced by women in the Malayalam film industry. Though the Committee had submitted its findings in 2019, the report was made public only on August 19 this year. The report pointed out various issues ranging from sexual abuse and lack of grievance redressal systems to the unavailability of toilet facilities for women on film sets.
The findings have led to a snowball effect in the Malayalam film industry with several women coming forward to name and shame their abusers publicly. Recently, the office bearers of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA), the largest actors’ welfare organisation led by actor Mohanlal, had to resign en masse after its general secretary Siddique, vice-president Jeyan R, and joint secretary Baburaj were accused of sexually harassing women. Apart from this, actors like Jayasurya, Mukesh, Maniyanpilla Raju, Edavela Babu, and directors Ranjith Balakrishnan and VK Prakash have also been named.
With some of the survivors filing police complaints, the Kerala government has constituted a Special Investigation Team to probe the allegations.
The aftermath of the Hema Committee report has led to a demand by Voice of Women (VOW), a collective of women Telugu artists, to publish the findings of a study done in Tollywood. A high-level committee consisting of police officers, film producers, and directors was constituted in April 2019 to probe the prevalence of workplace sexual harassment in the Telugu cinema industry following a public protest by actor Sri Reddy. Though the committee submitted its findings, the Telangana government is yet to publish the report.