The downfall of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA) has proven one thing: the Women in Cinema Collective (WCC) was on to something from the beginning. Formed by a group of women in the Malayalam film industry in the aftermath of the 2017 abduction and sexual assault of a leading female actor in Kochi, the WCC has repeatedly stated that AMMA is not a safe space for those who raise their voices for rights, especially women. On Tuesday, after several allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced against male industry members, including those of AMMA, the office bearers of the organisation resigned collectively. This decision was prompted by the recent release of the Justice Hema Committee report.
While some saw the mass resignation as an opportunity for the emergence of a younger and more effective leadership, others felt it was an inappropriate response, viewing it as a betrayal of those who had voted for them. Actor Parvathy Thiruvothu, a key figure in the movement for equality in Malayalam cinema and a founding member of the WCC, criticised the executive committee’s decision to step down, calling it a “cowardly” attempt to avoid accountability.
“The first reaction I had when I heard the news about this collective resignation was, ‘how cowardly.’ How cowardly of them to step away from a position where they are accountable to speak to the media. That’s an immediate cop-out. With this, the onus has again fallen on women to take the conversations and debates forward. It would have been amazing if they had shown at least the intention to work with the state government and stakeholders to figure a way out,” Parvathy said during a chat with journalist Barkha Dutt on her YouTube channel Mojo Story.
“This is the same executive committee that welcomed the prime accused in the 2017 sexual assault case back into its fold when the case was still going on. This is the same executive committee that claimed none of these things actually existed until the allegations against them came out. Also, it was very careless of the government to make statements like, ‘If the women have complaints, they should just file an FIR and come up with names.’ Again the onus is put on women to name and shame and take the brunt of it after that. My question’s always been, what is the proof of justice you can show for you to demand that we must name and shame (the perpetrators)? After that, what happens to us, our careers, lives, legal fees and mental health issues? No one gives a damn about that. Why, again and again, the onus is put on the women to take care of the problems that are not caused by us?” she asked, adding, “When are the men going to call themselves and each other out in front of the community clearly they are a part of?”
When asked if, during the times when she was not getting work and was unofficially blacklisted by the industry, she ever considered staying quiet, Parvathy replied with a firm no. “Not once. It was at the start of my career, in 2005, that I first felt the inkling of the behavioural issues of men in the industry. It started with hearing, ‘We don’t need a contract; We are like a family; it’s just 5-10 days of work.’ Then I don’t get paid at all. When those things happened, I remember thinking, ‘I will do any other work. I can get any other job.’ So I became the ‘difficult person to work with’.”
“Thankfully, the movies I did got me critical acclaim and did fairly well. So work started trickling in; it was never overpouring of work for me. No matter how successful my movies get as I am considered a difficult person to work with and I am proud of it. Because I started with that point of view, at this point, I refuse to leave. I will refuse for my colleagues to make that decision. It’s about having made up our mind as a collective that we are going to build it from scratch. Those who want to, can join, but if they don’t, they will be disrupted. They are not going to find it easy to exploit our lack of rights for their benefit,” she added.
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