I am wary of using the word “revolution” but there is, undeniably, a reckoning underway in the Malayalam film industry, and a few years down the line, we may very well look back at it as something “revolutionary”.
The Hema Committee report, published two weeks ago by the government of Kerala, five years after the resolute Women in Cinema Collective’s (WCC) petition, has shaken the earth beneath the feet of the men who have been abusing their power and position for several years. Multiple women, including actresses, and some people of other genders, have spoken up about sexual harassment, assault, exploitation and casual inhumanity on the hands of some formerly illustrious names. The open secret is now out in the public, and the disturbing details are hard to look away from.
A few people (mostly women) from other film industries have been encouraged to turn this moment into a cross-industry momentum, and are speaking about similar experiences they’ve faced. Over a 100 women from the Bengali film industry have written to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to constitute an equivalent committee in the state, and written a charter of demands to ensure workplace safety for women and marginalised communities. Actor Samantha Ruth Prabhu, along with several other female actors, on behest of a support group, The Voice of Women, are publicly urging the Telangana Government, to publish a submitted sub-committee report on sexual harassment. There are reports of other regional film industries following suit toward organised action, but the members of the Hindi film industry have been conspicuous in their absence.
Stray voices, when asked a question by the odd journalist, have expressed their support towards the women of the Malayalam film industry, who are fighting an impossible battle against an irredeemable system. But there is no sign yet of a collective or collected response by the industry at large, and by its biggest names in specific. This muted reaction is, what they call, “a feature, not a bug” of the so-called “Bollywood” ecosystem, which is defined, not so much by the lack of intent on the part of its most respected members, but by the lack of consequences for its most reprehensible ones.
In 2018, when the #MeToo movement made its presence felt in Mumbai, and the Hindi film industry had to confront its own ranks, the names of many well-known men came up in public discourse. Almost every one of those men is working actively today, and almost none issued a public apology, nor showed any sign of remorse. The movement faded away into oblivion, when there was a redressal about men whose names became collateral; whose infractions were spoken in the same breath as those called out for grievous misconduct. And in the battle for some necessary nuance, a larger war for sustained systemic change was lost.
The most cynical of us would liken this to an appraisal of the Hindi film industry, where, purportedly, the more things change, the more they remain the same. Misogynistic cinema often triumphs at the box office, and even the perceived progressive film is still marketed through the derogatorily termed “item number”, where the female lead is objectified for, and most often by, the male gaze. On screen, the names of the women actors in most content pieces (possibly except television), more often than not, comes after that of men, and in most of these films, the age gap between men and the women is similar to that of the men and their children. The films where that isn’t true, where the story has a female protagonist, is still called a “female-driven” film in media discourse, as opposed to films with male protagonists, that are simply called “films”.
Furthermore, according to 2023’s “O Womaniya” report, only 47 per cent of 156 film and web series in 2022 passed the Bechdel test, which measures if two female characters on screen have a conversation about anything other than a man. The same report stated that women only have 27 per cent talk time in trailers as compared to men, and there are only 13 per cent women in senior management across the top 25 media companies. It’s easy to see why women may feel disempowered in an ecosystem that is seemingly made of, for and by men. Where it may feel easier to stay silent than speak up, where feminism is the “f” word most people are terrified to be associated with.
And yet, there are invisible cultural changes that have enforced themselves organically at the individual and organisational level, as a new generation of actors and talent, with more awareness of their own agency, enter this unstructured and unwieldy world. While there is a lot more to be done in this regard, and the jury is still out on their impact, many reputed organisations today (particularly OTTs) have clear guidelines around sexual harassment, that are communicated to cast and crew at the beginning of any shoot. There are more POSH committees in media organisations today than there were five years ago. Shoots that require intimate scenes to be choreographed, bring on professional “intimacy coordinators” for it.
There are far more sets today with female members of crew across different positions in the team hierarchy than earlier. And there are, encouragingly, many more women telling women’s stories on screen that are increasingly finding acceptance among mainstream audiences. It’s been a long time coming, but a feminist film like Laapataa Ladies (2023) being the toast of the town is now not as surprising as it once was.
But this is, unarguably, the bare minimum. Real change will only come when the reality changes and the reality is that we still don’t have the Hindi film industry equivalent of the Women in Cinema Collective, and there is no coordinated call yet for one. This is where, as men in the media and entertainment ecosystem, we must take responsibility to show up as allies and use our voices and platforms to support those of the women demanding action and accountability. At the very least, by talking, sharing and speaking widely and openly about the Hema Committee report and its outcome, we can create a safe space and a reassuring environment at our workplaces, in online spaces and on our sets, for women and other genders to speak up, in their own time, about their experiences. And we must then work together with any and all people demanding better from our industry, to be a better industry.
I am inspired by what the incredible Parvathy Thiruvothu, who’s been one of the actors and leaders at the forefront of the change in the Malayalam film industry, said, “I am not okay with people saying, ‘The Malayalam industry is so rotten inside.’ No, we are good inside, which is why we are fixing it”. As members of the Hindi film and media industry, we must, too, start fixing what’s broken, to be good, and more importantly still, to do good.
The writer is the co-founder of the youth media and impact organisation, Yuvaa. He is the host and creator of the multi-award-winning chat show on positive masculinity, Be A Man, Yaar!
