2024 was an eventful year for Malayalam cinema, during which its best and worst facets became the centre of a nationwide discussion. All the talk in the first half of the year was about the brilliance of movies like Aavesham, Manjummel Boys, Premalu, and Bramayugam.

The conversations turned dark in the second half of the year with the release of the Hema Committee report, which exposed rampant sexual abuse in the Malayalam film industry. The release of the findings was a landmark moment that forced the industry to confront its demons. While it has raised hopes of change, many of the women who were violated are still struggling to put their demons to rest.

In August 2024, Sanjana (name changed) was on a bus to Kozhikode to write a test when her phone rang. Her mother was calling to warn her against watching the news. The Kerala state government had finally decided to release a heavily redacted version of the report by the Justice Hema Committee on sexual harassment and gender discrimination in the Malayalam film industry. The news and its fallout were sure to disturb Sanjana. But she couldn’t stay away from it either. 

In 2019, at the peak of the Me Too movement in Kerala, model and aspiring actor Sanjana too had raised her voice against a prominent actor. After giving her hopes of a career in films, the powerful man allegedly raped her in 2016. By the time she went public with her assault, the Hema Committee was wrapping up its work. Her testimony couldn’t become part of the report.

The report was hard-hitting even though the Pinarayi Vijayan government decided to hold back significant portions of the findings from public view, including the names of the worst perpetrators. The media was calling it historic.

Published after relentless efforts of the Women in Cinema Collective, rights activists, and journalists, the Hema Committee report revealed unspoken truths, including the existence of a ‘casting couch’, sexual harassment, lack of basic facilities, and gross disregard for labour laws. 

The conversation started by the exposé set off an avalanche. Several women who had not deposed before the committee out of fear felt emboldened to appear on TV channels and tell their stories.

Names kept tumbling out – actor and CPIM MLA Mukesh, actors Siddique, Jayasurya, Edavela Babu, Baburaj, Sudheesh, Maniyanpilla Raju and Alencier, directors Balachandra Menon, Ranjith, VA Shrikumar, VK Prakash, and Sajin Baabu, production controller Vichu, makeup assistant Charuth Chandran, makeup artists Saji Koratty and Ratheesh Ambady, among others. 

What Kerala was witnessing here was unprecedented. It seemed like the state’s cultural idols were coming undone, led by the sheer persistence of a few women who refused to be treated with indignity. 

As she sat sifting through the news and its epic fallout, against her mother’s advice, Sanjana went into an emotional spiral recalling her own experience. That’s when she got a call from a journalist friend who begged her to speak up at least now. “My reporter friend called me repeatedly asking me how I could keep quiet during such a big moment.” 

Her friend’s encouragement worked and she appeared before a television channel, exhuming details of an assault she had buried deep in her memory. She soon approached the police with a formal complaint and an FIR was lodged against the actor she had named. Sanjana hoped at the time that this would help several other women who were opening up about similar experiences to take the legal route.

But now, over five months later, Sanjana is wondering what the point of it all was. The Supreme Court granted bail to the man she accused of rape and questioned why she had delayed the complaint. While the alleged rapist went on with life as though nothing had happened, she felt exposed.

Sanjana has since left Kerala and now lives a quiet life in another southern state. “I don’t even know why I thought something would come out of this. I don’t want to work or live in Kerala,” she told TNM from an undisclosed location. She is still not sure if she should have listened to her journalist friend about speaking up. But leaving Kerala, she feels, was the best decision.

The truth about the Malayalam film industry was supposed to set the victims free. But in many cases, the truth seems to be consuming the very people who spoke it.

Bans, loss of work

Sivappriya Maneeshya has been a hairstylist and makeup artist for over a decade in the Malayalam film industry. She has seen it all – pay disparity, gender discrimination, shadow bans, and even sexual harassment. 

When she sat in front of the three-bench Hema Committee and narrated her experience of sexual harassment, she truly believed – like many of the women who deposed – that things were about to change. When the redacted version was finally released in August 2024, Maneeshya took her case forward and cooperated with the police to register two FIRs.

Days after the Kerala government released the Hema Committee report, it constituted a Special Investigation Team to probe the allegations of sexual harassment and power abuse in the Malayalam film industry. Four women IPS officers – DIG S Ajeetha Begum, SP, Crime Branch (HQ), Merin Joseph, AIG, Coastal Police, G Poonkuzhali, and Assistant Director, Kerala Police Academy, Aishwarya Dongre – were part of the seven-member team.

“I am fully cooperating with the SIT. However, I have lost trust in the Pinarayi government. I had deposed in front of the Committee, hoping that the government is committed to ending the unfair practices in the Malayalam film industry. Had the government taken action on our concerns in 2018 itself, I wouldn’t have to face another harassment in 2023,” Maneeshya said.

The CPIM government’s decision to sit on the findings of the Hema Committee for four years without an explanation and then release a heavily abridged version has been widely criticised. It gave the accused and the powerful film bodies they controlled a sense of impunity and a crucial window of time to regroup and strategise.

On December 31, 2024, the All Kerala Cine Make-Up Artists and Hair Stylists Union cancelled Maneeshya’s membership arbitrarily. The AKCMH is one among the 21 unions affiliated with the Film Employees Federation of Kerala, or FEFKA, the apex body for the welfare of professionals and technicians working at various levels of the Malayalam film industry. The move, essentially, is as good as an industry-wide ban on Maneeshya.

The official reason given by the union is that she “defamed” the union in an unofficial WhatsApp group of makeup artists. What it did not mention is that some members of the group had insulted and berated Maneeshya over her revelations before the Hema Committee.

The cancellation of her FEFKA membership only formalises her isolation in the industry. A majority of her regular clients in the Malayalam film industry stopped hiring her after she blew the whistle in 2018. “Those who are listed as accused in these cases are still active in the industry while we are denied work,” said Maneeshya over the phone, from the set of a Telugu film. Like Sanjana, Maneeshya too did not want her location disclosed.

Legal merry-go-round, delays

The SIT has registered around 40-45 FIRs based on statements given to the Hema Committee. TNM has learnt that in certain cases, multiple FIRs have been lodged on statements by a single survivor. The names of the survivor and the alleged perpetrator are not mentioned in these FIRs. People have been termed ‘star’, ‘top actor’, ‘makeup artist’, etc. However, most of the FIRs are in limbo, as the women are reluctant to pursue a criminal case.

“Look at what happened in superstar Dileep’s case. The survivor complained immediately, but we have seen how she continues to be victimised. What we went through happened several years ago. It’s not an easy decision to just go forward with a case,” one of the women who deposed before the Hema Committee told TNM. 

Actor Dileep is accused of hiring goons to abduct and sexually assault a female colleague. Though the female actor complained to the police immediately after the assault in February 2017, the trial has been dragging on in courts. Multiple witnesses from the film industry turned hostile.

Actor Maala Parvathy, popular for her roles in movies such as Android Kunjappan Version 5.25, Godha, and Bheeshma Parvam among others, informed the SIT that she was not interested in becoming a part of the investigation. She had told the Hema Committee that she had intervened when female colleagues were put in a dangerous situation on a film set. However, as none of the women involved wanted to pursue a case, she informed the SIT that she could not help them further.

But the SIT, bound by the court’s orders to conduct an investigation, reached out to the women victims named by Maala. Calling this a breach of privacy, Maala approached the Supreme Court seeking to quash all proceedings initiated by the SIT. 

Another makeup artist too moved the SC alleging that the SIT was pressuring her to file a complaint. The petitioner said that she gave a statement on an assurance given by the Hema Committee that no legal steps would be taken against any individuals based on her statement. She informed the SC that even after refusing consent to proceed with the case, the SIT was compelling her.

An actor who had deposed before the Hema Committee said that an officer from the SIT texted her parents when she refused to speak to them. “They were polite, but that was crossing a line. So I texted back saying I have nothing to say,” she recalled. 

The SIT’s overreach was criticised by many women who were fighting for accountability in the Malayalam film industry. But Maala’s push to stall the entire proceedings, many worry, may undo years of painstaking work.

SIT, the relief of being heard

Renowned writer-director and one of the founding members of WCC Anjali Menon pointed out that while Maala has the right to make her choice, the demand to quash the entire High Court order was excessive. “The process of law must go on so that something comes out of it. We cannot ask to put a stop to the entire exercise because of individual inconveniences,” she said.

On the other side, there are those like Maneeshya and Rohini KS, another makeup artist, who have decided to put their careers on the line to back the SIT investigation.

In December, the government appointed Poonkuzhali IPS as the nodal officer and primary contact person for survivors in cases related to the Hema Committee report. This was after the WCC approached the High Court with concerns over the threats and intimidation faced by survivors.

“I felt heard for the first time,” said Rohini about her experience with the SIT. She said that Poonkuzhali returned from her house in the evening and sat with her to hear her complaint. “The FIR was filed that day itself. She addressed me as ‘madam’ and assured me all support,” Rohini said, adding that her experiences at police stations in the past were not welcoming.

Rohini was recently threatened by a male colleague. He was angry with her for supporting another makeup artist who had filed a fresh complaint against him. “He then called my husband and talked about me in a derogatory manner. I complained to the SIT. The next day, a police team, including a woman officer, came to take a statement and an FIR was registered. I was glad that they came in mufti (plain clothes) and even avoided their official vehicle when they came to my house,” Rohini said. 

“As someone who was mistreated and threatened by FEFKA members for raising genuine concerns, the SIT’s behaviour was very comforting,” she added. 

FEFKA dons the villain’s role

While the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists or A.M.M.A. has got national notoriety in the last few years for their problematic reactions to issues ranging from the sexual assault of the female actor allegedly masterminded by actor Dileep in 2017 to the Hema Committee, FEFKA has largely managed to escape scrutiny.

Unlike A.M.M.A., which is registered as a charitable society, FEFKA is the most influential body in the industry with over 8,000 members ranging from producers and directors to drivers and extras.

Initially, FEFKA welcomed the Hema Committee report exuberantly. In a press statement on August 28, 10 days after the report’s release, FEFKA assured it would provide survivors with legal and psychological support. But as soon as the media attention shifted away from the issue, the union changed its colours.

It called a meeting of its members, where women who spoke up were verbally attacked and warned against criticising the organisation. Further, multiple women TNM spoke to said that dubbing artist and former FEFKA office bearer Bhagyalakshmi schooled them against speaking to the media.

On September 12, barely a month after the report was released, the FEFKA general secretary B Unnikrishnan publicly criticised the Hema Committee report. He said that he had a problem with the way respondents were selected by the committee.

Emboldened by FEFKA’s stand, the All Kerala Cine Make-Up Artists and Hair Stylists Union issued show-cause notices to Maneeshya, Rohini, and a few others for speaking to TV channels about their abuse. While Maneeshya refused to respond to the threat of cancelling her membership, Rohini replied, reiterating her stand against harassment.

In a mail to FEFKA’s Unnikrishnan on October 30, Rohini asked why no action was taken against the makeup artists who were either arrested or listed as accused in sexual harassment cases while the women were denied jobs. She said that she got only 15 days of work in 2024. However, she did not receive any reply.

While the union has cancelled the membership of the most outspoken survivors, the accused men are still part of FEFKA. This despite a promise by Unnikrishnan in August to punish the guilty. Rohini said that Unnikrishnan has been evading their questions for a long time.

Sources said that the All Kerala Cine Make-Up Artists and Hair Stylists Union even forced some of the survivors to apologise for raising allegations against its members. The threat is simple – their union membership would be cancelled if they did not make amends. Makeup artists without a union membership card are not allowed to work in Malayalam films.

The cancellation of membership is a big blow to women makeup artists like Maneeshya who had to fight a long battle to get it in the first place. The FEFKA union has historically recognised only male makeup artists. It began accepting women as makeup artists only two years ago.

Pointing to FEFKA’s double standards, Maneeshya said that the accused persons remained safe with the union and in the industry while she had to run to other states for a living.

“I heard from a colleague that even a superstar, persuaded by his makeup man, has demanded that I should not be given work in Malayalam cinema,” Maneeshya said. She, however, added that she has been denied work from the time she started speaking against the indecent behaviour of production controllers and makeup artists seven years ago. She said that post the release of the Hema Committee report and the media coverage, pressure has mounted on her mentor Pattanam Rasheed not to include her in his team.

TNM contacted Unnikrishnan, but he refused to respond to the serious allegations saying he was busy.

Pradeep Rangan, secretary of All Kerala Cine Make-Up Artists and Hair Stylists Union, told TNM that show-cause notices were given to women who spoke ill of the union and that it had nothing to do with their statements to the Hema Committee. When asked whether any action was taken against the men who were either arrested or listed as accused, Pradeep said the union cannot take action merely based on an FIR.

“Anyone can raise allegations against you or me. It has to be proven in court. Then we will take action,” he said. Perhaps realising that his previous statement exposed his bias, he changed his stance a few minutes later and said that the union’s next general body would make decisions on the accused persons.

The extensive control wielded by FEFKA-affiliated unions has become a significant point of discussion following the release of the Hema Committee report. This has also raised a pressing question: if FEFKA truly acts in the interests of its members, why are labour rights violations so rampant in the industry?

The Hema Committee cited instances where women were paid as little as Rs 4,000 for 20 days of work with no contract or safe accommodations. These labour violations affect not only women but men as well.

For each woman, the struggle has taken a different shape. While some feel violated by legal proceedings initiated without their consent, others find solace in finally having a platform to voice their grievances. However, many women we spoke to shared a common sentiment: their biggest challenge isn’t the SIT – it’s their own industry bodies.

Will alternatives rise or die?

Award-winning sound designer Ajayan Adat, known for films like Nayattu, Soni, Badhai Do, Virus, and Ela Veezha Poonchira, among others, said he had a culture shock when he moved to the sets of Malayalam films from the highly political Film and Television Institute of India, Pune campus.

Ajayan had an eventful student life at FTII from being booked for protests against the appointment of television artiste-turned-BJP leader Gajendra Chauhan to getting assaulted by the right-wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad on campus. When he started his career in Malayalam cinema in 2010, he found himself in the midst of misogyny, harassment, and labour exploitation.

Ajayan said he was initially oblivious to the darker side of the industry as he worked on the sets of progressive filmmakers like Shalini Ushadevi, Rajeev Ravi, Aashiq Abu, Anjali Menon, and others. “Then one day I was in a car with a producer and financier to work in a new Malayalam movie. Throughout the journey, they were passing obscene comments against random women on the road,” he said.

He said that the release of the Hema Committee report finally led to discussions about exploitation and toxic work environments.

Soon after the release of the report, Ajayan found himself added to a WhatsApp group titled ‘Malayalam Film Workers Forum’, formed by sound designer Lenin Valapad. Lenin has worked in films such as Angammal, Ela Veezha Poonchira, Kismath, and others.

The group had mostly junior level technicians, including women, who started sharing their bitter experiences. The group soon grew to over 200 members, including producers and directors.

Ajayan found it shocking that labourers – such as light boys and production assistants – were made to work for over 16 hours a day without being given any overtime payment. This became one of the main discussions in the group.

“Malayalam filmmakers boast about completing their films in 22-25 days while other industries take months. However, the burden is on the poor labourers. Other industries have clear contracts, overtime pay, and organised labour unions to demand that,” Ajayan said.

“Trade unions, backed by political parties, are in every sector in Kerala except in film units. There was once an attempt by the Centre for Indian Trade Unions to create a union, but it was successfully thwarted by powerful persons in the industry,” Ajayan said. Even the CITU, the trade union arm of the CPIM, appears to have failed entirely to introduce its pro-labour ideology in the film industry.

Surprisingly, the unions that control the Malayalam film industry do not even bother to hide their exploitative attitude towards workers. As per a recent statement issued by FEFKA, a daily wage worker should work from 6 am to 10 pm with a half-hour dinner break. For a task allotted for 1.5 days, the timing is 6 am to 2 pm or 2 pm to 6 am with a dinner break. For two day work, the timing is 6 am to 6 pm, with only food breaks. The statement said that only the producer is eligible to fix the work hours.

The Hema Committee report also spurred a section of filmmakers to begin discussions about alternatives to A.M.M.A. and FEFKA, which they felt were acting as B-teams of producers and superstars. In September, director-producer Aashiq Abu announced the formation of the Progressive Filmmakers Association and its plans to reform the Malayalam film industry.

Apart from Ajayan and Aashiq, filmmakers Rajeev Ravi and Kamal KM are part of the newly formed collective. Many smaller groups have mushroomed in the last few months like the Creative Women’s Collective and the Beyond Hema Committee group. Creative Women’s Collective has submitted recommendations for improving safety and parity on film sets, especially for women.

Ajayan, Lenin, assistant directors Joe Elizabeth and Sulfa attended a meeting of the film policy committee called by the Kerala Chalachitra Academy in September. At the meeting, they highlighted that the labour rights violations on film sets were not due to a lack of laws.

“There are clear guidelines regarding the work timings in the Cine-Workers and Cinema Theatre Workers (Regulation of Employment) Act, 1981. However, organisations like FEFKA, unfortunately, believe in a master-slave relationship. Everything works as per the whims and fancies of producers,” Ajayan said.

A few artists working across other industries pointed out that in Tamil Nadu, the shoot is divided into shifts. Different crews work on different shifts and everyone gets one mandatory off per week. “The shift system and payment for extra hours are strictly adhered to in the Telugu and Hindi film industries too. In Malayalam cinema, however, everyone tends to make adjustments to avoid placing additional financial burdens on the producer. Implementing such changes would increase costs by no more than five percent of the total budget. A significant portion of the budget is already allocated to location expenses and the remuneration of lead actors,” Ajayan said.

Social activist K Ajitha, who has spearheaded several feminist struggles in Kerala, is one of the members of Beyond Hema Committee, a group formed to offer solidarity to WCC in their fight to ensure gender justice in Malayalam cinema. “We wanted to let society know that WCC was not alone in this fight. Thiruvananthapuram-based Sakhi Resource Centre for Women took the initiative to bring like-minded women into the group,” Ajitha said.

Counter-narratives, victim shaming

During the time of the Hema Committee report’s release, the world was watching the emergence of a feminist icon – 72-year-old French woman Gisele Pelicot, who waived her anonymity as a sexual assault victim to declare that “shame must change sides” from the victim to the rapist. Tragically, in Kerala, despite spearheading a one-of-a-kind gender justice movement, things were not the same for women – slut shaming, online and offline harassment, and setbacks at courts awaited them.

Courts have added insult to injury for many survivors, focussing on the delay in filing complaints instead of the material facts presented. The Hema Committee’s revelations about organised tactics prevailing in the industry to silence victims had little impact on the judges.

While granting bail to senior actor-director Balachandra Menon in a complaint filed by a junior artiste, the Kerala High Court on December 12 observed that the case was registered 17 years after the alleged incident. “It is true that the investigation is going on. But everybody must remember that pride and dignity is not only to women, but to men also,” observed Justice PV Kunhikrishnan, adding that the petitioner (Menon) has been honoured by the nation with a Padma Shri.

The Supreme Court, in November, also questioned a survivor’s eight-year delay in filing the complaint while granting bail to actor Siddique in a rape case. The judges seem oblivious to the Supreme Court’s repeated observations that delay in filing complaints of sexual abuse is influenced by many factors including social stigma.

“Delay doesn’t mean that it never happened. Often women face more problems after pursuing the case. The issues faced by the actor in the 2017 sexual harassment case during the trial are right in front of everyone. Such incidents could be a deterrent,” Ajitha said. 

Meanwhile, a sexual assault case filed against actor Nivin Pauly became instrumental in changing narratives. Though Nivin was listed as the sixth accused, police gave him a clean chit after finding discrepancies in the complainant’s statement, including the date of the alleged incident. Soon, doubting survivors became the norm.

Hate campaigns against the WCC

Bina Paul, another founding member of the WCC, graduated from FTII, Pune in 1983. She recalled that in the first decade of her career as a film editor, there was rarely any woman working in the technical departments of cinema. “A woman cinematographer was unheard of and perhaps unfathomable,” she said.

“I was privileged to a certain extent because I am married to a senior cinematographer and filmmaker. But despite that, I was mansplained to and my capabilities were always second-guessed by male colleagues, even those without as much experience as me,” she told TNM. 

It was only when the WCC was formed that a semblance of solidarity set in, emphasising that it is every woman’s right to be treated equally, she said.

“Earlier, as I was one of the few women in the crew, I used to get distress calls from women about harassment on sets. But we had no idea how to address it. We were always told to either take it in our stride or leave. That working in films includes sexual propositioning for women was so normalised. WCC helped many of us shake that feeling off, to recognise that harassment cannot and must not be normalised,” she said.

Ajitha calls the WCC’s role historic. “The genie freed by the Hema Committee is still out. No one can push it back into the bottle,” she said. However, the WCC too had its share of troubles post the release of the report, despite often being the only stakeholder to push for its release.

Actors Revathy and Rima Kallingal were subjected to targeted hate campaigns. A model who accused director Ranjith of sexual assault told the media that Ranjith took his photographs to send to his partner, Revathy. Rima was defamed by singer Suchitra, who linked her with organising rave parties. Both actors denied these allegations as baseless and Rima threatened to file a case against Suchitra.

“I don’t normally react to mud slung at me. This time I had to react as my name was used to attack the WCC. I had expected some kind of backlash anyway,” Rima told TNM.

In an interview with TNM, actor and WCC founding member Padmapriya Janakiraman also said that the WCC and its members have always been dragged through the mud for voicing their concerns. “It was the day when the Hema Committee report was released that perhaps we were not bombarded with abusive comments on social media,” she said.

Bina Paul added that such character assassination of the WCC and members like Rima and Revathy is also about the social ecosystem of Kerala. “This prism of Kerala being progressive is in many ways a sham. We are a state of high literacy and political awareness, but none of this has really translated into social equality or economic power for women. Everyone loves a good scandal, and they are still vehicles to discredit any woman who tries to speak up,” she said.

Many women in the film industry told TNM that after the 2017 actor assault case when the WCC was formed, men on film sets would joke about it, often referring to them as ‘WCC sympathisers’ in a mocking sense. Actor Parvathy Thiruvothu said at a public gathering that she was called ‘bathroom Parvathy’ for raising the lack of basic amenities on film sets at an A.M.M.A. meeting when she was still a member of the association.

“When the Me Too movement was taking off, men would jokingly say they cannot fool around with us because what if we raise a MeToo against them,” a young female actor from the industry told TNM. She said that the trend now seems to be repeating, with the Hema report being mocked on film sets under the garb of humour. “Many men make casual references to the report and ask if we will tell the Hema Committee if we don’t like a joke,” she added.

Recently, BJP MP and actor Suresh Gopi brought the conversation back to A.M.M.A. being “a family” at the organisation’s get-together titled ‘Kudumba Sangamam’ (family meet). Asking the resigned ex-office bearers to take charge, he also took a covert jibe at those who write and pronounce the organisation name as A.M.M.A in a dissenting sense, saying nothing can break the association.

The word ‘amma’ denotes mother, and after A.M.M.A. became indifferent towards female members who raised allegations of sexual harassment, the organisation name began to be written and pronounced using the alphabets rather than as a single word. This was, for many, an act of registering protest against A.M.M.A. for brushing aside discrimination under the garb of everyone being ‘amma’s children’.

While the release of the report triggered visible panic and discomfort among powerful men in the industry, its journey forward has been muddled by a lack of momentum. But despite all the blowback, director Anjali Menon said that the WCC does not see this as a defeat. The many conversations about systemic sexual harassment, wage parity, and labour laws, she believes, are wins for the Collective.

“Look at the smaller ripples this movement has created. Several women have spoken up like never before. Cases are in courts, under police probe. Production houses are being forced to implement an Internal Committee on sets because the WCC went to court demanding it. So many women feel heard, seen, like they have a friend to confide in. Big changes may take time, but the smaller ones also make a lot of difference,” Anjali told TNM.

Ajitha observed that though society has held space for the Hema Committee and its aftermath, the way forward has to be led by the state government, which she said must take a stern stand and implement the recommendations of the committee’s report. “The state can’t support the predator and prey at the same time,” she said.

Bina Paul added that backlash or institutional apathy is not surprising when the fight is against power hierarchies that have existed forever.

“It is not fair, of course. But haven’t women the world over faced this whenever they have tried to ask questions? This process is exhausting, isolating, even frustrating. But this is also a story of finding our voices, of empowerment, of simply not backing down until we get the dignity we deserve,” she said.

This report has been republished from The News Minute. It has been lightly edited for style and clarity.

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