#Metoo Movement: Sexual harassment allegations in Mollywood that made headlines

As the second wave of the #Metoo movement is gaining strength in India, especially in the art and media circles, women have come up with shocking allegations about sexual harassment at their workspaces. A movement that started with American actress Alyssa Milano speaking up about her own encounter with sexual predators and encouraging women to speak out about sexual harassment soon spread across the globe. By October 2018 scores of women came out publically and anonymously to call out names of sexual offenders and share incidents of harassment and assault they faced at their workspaces and life at large.

Following Bollywood actress Tanushree Dutta's allegations against veteran actor Nana Patekar, the #MeToo movement was reignited in Indian with many within the media and entertainment circles calling out big names like National Award winning lyricist Vairamuthu, actor Mukesh and more.

Let's take a look at how this movement started, evolved and exposed many big names in the Mollywood film industry.

Kerala's #MeToo campaign gained strength when bold female voices of the industry including Parvathy, Rima Kallingal and Sajitha Madathil expressed their solidarity with the campaign. Parvathy, in an interview, said that she became aware of her body rights very late in life. While, Rima elaborated in a talk show how gender discrimination started from home itself by stating how her brother was given special food over her, just because he was a boy. Theatre and movie artist, Sajitha Madathil also stood in solidarity with victims of sexual harassment and asked others to speak up and expose the predators they have encountered.

It came as a surprise when one of the senior actress KPAC Lalitha revealed that late legendary comedian Adoor Bhasi misbehaved with her years ago. The actress, in an interview, said that following the instance of misconduct, she tried to raise a complaint at the actors' organisation Chalachitra Parishath, but KP Ummer, who was head of the association warned her against it and even asked, "Who are you to complain against Adoor Bhasi?" Lalitha also alleged that male supremacy and exploitation of female actresses have been prevalent in Mollywood for a long time.

In the second wave of the #MeToo movement, senior Malayalam actor and Kollam MLA, Mukesh was called out for his alleged inappropriate behaviour towards a casting director. Tess Joseph, who was the casting director of the television show 'Koteeshwaran', which was hosted by Mukesh, revealed that nineteen years ago, the actor called her room multiple times and even used his influence to change her room to be next to his in the hotel they stayed. Though Mukesh has denied the allegations by saying he don't remember the girl or the incident, the allegation has stirred up a new controversy inside Mollywood.

Popular Malayalam and Telugu music composer, Gopi Sundar is the latest one to be called out in the ongoing #MeToo movement in India. According to the allegation made by an anonymous female singer on Twitter, Gopi Sundar on the pretext of working with a teenager for a movie song behaved inappropriately. The victim says in the tweet that, instead of focusing on the work, Gopi was interested in knowing whether the girl was a virgin or not. The musician allegedly asked for sexual favours in return of opportunities.

Following the recent allegations against Mukesh and Gopi Sundar, many prominent figures from the entertainment industry have expressed solidarity with the #MeToo campaign and have given their insightful opinion on the issue. Senior actor and director Revathy, also a pioneer member of the WCC, said it is high time men in Mollywood start behaving themselves and realize that a "no" from a woman means "no and nothing else."

Actress and social activist Maala Parvathy also said that speaking out about exploitation against women in workspaces will be a huge blessing to newcomers who are entering any profession as they will be aware of such advancements and know how to tackle it more effectively