Women film workers fight back against sexual harassment

It seems art imitates life in the Malayalam film industry.

The award-winning film Aattam tells the story of a travelling theatre troupe whose sole woman performer accuses a fellow actor of sexual harassment. Just months after the film’s release, the Malayalam cinema industry in Kerala has been rocked by the revelations which paint a miserable picture of the condition of its women workers. In August and September 2024, concerns for women’s safety in workplaces – from doctors and night-shift workers — have gathered momentum in India. 

In West Bengal, the brutal rape and murder of a woman doctor in Kolkata’s R. G. Kar Medical College on August 9 sparked nationwide outrage and has raised even more stark questions about the safety of women workers in India. 

Ten days later, the release of the Justice Hema Committee report exposed the rampant sexual harassment in the Malayalam cinema industry.

However, such harassment is prevalent in other regional cinema environments as well. 

Women workers in the Telugu film industry have been emboldened by the Hema Committee report to speak out about their harassment. 

‘Sex on demand’

The Hema Committee Report is explosive in its description of the widespread harassment of women workers.

Women who wish to enter the film industry, the report states, are told they have to “make ‘adjustments’ and ‘compromise’.’’

This translates to an expectation to make themselves available for “sex on demand”. 

An enabling atmosphere is created by attacking the reputation of women from the outset: “Many in the industry are made to believe that all women in the industry get into the industry or are retained only because they have sex with men in the industry.”

Actors who willingly appear in intimate or explicit scenes are branded as available. Some witnesses shared video clips, audio clips and screenshots of WhatsApp messages to prove that the predators included well-known figures in Malayalam cinema.

Film shoots can be unsafe. The report mentions chilling night-time knocks on the door while at outdoor locations, repeated banging with force and the feeling that the door would collapse to let the men enter, are recurrent. 

“So, unless women take somebody from the family when they go for work, they fear that they will not be safe at the workplace,” the report states.

Only a portion of the report was released publicly in August, five years after the committee had submitted it to the state government.

The available portions document that women often lack basic facilities during filming, including access to toilets and changing rooms. The harassment is also carried out virtually through rape threats, and bullying of family members. 

The Hema Committee report was commissioned through lobbying by Women in Cinema Collective,formed in 2017, following the public accusation by a senior actor against another. 

Collective members have termed the en masse resignation of the office bearers of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA) an act of cowardice and refusal to be held accountable. 

Bollywood accusations

This is not the first time that sexual harassment charges have been made in Indian film industry or even in the performing arts.

In the wake of the global #MeToo movement, several Bollywood women actors made accusations against powerful men in the industry. Most complainants reported loss of employment opportunities as a direct result of their speaking up.

Women workers in the Telugu film industry had also submitted a list of demands to the Telangana Film Development Corporation, which included basic provisions such as sanitation, transport for artists working during odd hours and the formation of a Committee Against Sexual Harassment. 

The Telangana State Government also formed a high-level committee to look into the issues. However, the report, despite having been submitted in 2022, is yet to be released. Several prominent women personalities of Telugu cinema have now called upon the Telangana government to make the report public. 

Simultaneously, veteran actors in Tamil film industry have alleged “rampant sexual abuse” within Tamil cinema, and de facto bans on actors such as Sri Reddy and Chinmayi who had made sexual harassment allegations in the past.

Women punished

The multiple instances of sexual harassment in different film industries in India show that women film workers are doubly marginalised – denied their rights and entitlements as workers and punished by loss of employment for speaking out. 

Women in the Bengali film industry addressed an open letter to four bodies, including the Federation of Cine Workers and Technicians of Eastern India and West Bengal Motion Picture Artists Forum. The Women’s Forum for Screen Workers+  (WFSW+) has demanded strict adherence to the Prevention of Sexual Harassment Act, 24/7 helpline for victims of sexual violence, use of intimacy coordinators for “intimate scenes” and health, safety and other forms of welfare. 

In the last few years, theatre directors have been arrested on sexual assault charges.

Since then, women theatre workers have been creating a growing public discourse against gender based violence in Bangla group theatre, which is often only discussed in hushed tones and across generations of actors, submitting deputations to the government body overseeing theatre.

The Federation of Cine Workers created an email address (and a committee, comprising one female member of each guild) to which survivors of sexual harassment can send their complaints. 

They also vowed to work to protect the interests of their “mothers and sisters” exactly as they are protected within families. The irony of the statement is that in India, 30 percent of women face violence and sexual abuse at home

It seems that all the apex bodies governing women workers’ well-being, ranging from AMMA in Kerala to the Federation of Cine Workers in West Bengal are unable to understand and address the demands of women workers in the entertainment field. 

As more and more women demand their rights as workers, and not merely as artists, the field seems ready for a radical change. 

Samata Biswas is Assistant Professor of English at The Sanskrit College and University, Kolkata. She is also a member of the Kolkata based collective Surokkha Istehar.

Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.

(Cover Photo: The Indian film industry is facing its own #MeToo moment after the release of the Hema Committee report. Vyacheslav Argenberg via Wikimedia Commons. Credits CCBY4.0)