Malayalam actress Parvathy calls Mohanlal's resignation as AMMA president 'cowardly' after Hema Committee report findings

Renuka Vyavahare (BOMBAY TIMES; September 2, 2024)

The #MeToo movement in the Malayalam film industry gained momentum after the release of the much-delayed Hema Committee report on August 19. It revealed rampant sexual exploitation, gender inequality, lack of pay parity and misconduct in Mollywood. The entire executive committee of Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA) led by Mohanlal resigned on August 27 citing moral responsibility.

Actor and member of Kerala’s Women in Cinema Collective (WCC), Parvathy Thiruvothu, who has been vocal about the issue from the beginning, spoke to us about the situation and reforms needed in the industry.

While revelations continue to surface in the Malayalam film industry, there are some who claim they were unaware about what was going on, and many kept quiet about it. Do you believe that?
Anybody who is saying that they are not aware of what was happening is lying. There are possibilities that some of them weren’t affected by this system or this power structure. Maybe some of them haven’t been harassed sexually, but verbally, or even in terms of being given contracts or basic sanitation at the workplace. There are probably some who haven’t been deeply impacted like the rest. But if they are saying that they haven’t seen it around, haven’t heard about it, or think it doesn’t exist, that’s just cruel. I have faced it, which is what I disclosed to the HEMA committee in a confidentiality clause.

What are your thoughts on the mass resignation of Mohanlal-led AMMA, following the Hema Committee report? Both Mohanlal and Mammootty in the past two days have broken their silence and said they welcome the Hema Committee report, but they are not part of any ‘power group’. Mohanlal stated that the entire industry is answerable, so why crucify AMMA?
When the actor assault case was happening in 2017, the same AMMA executive committee did nothing to support or protect the survivor. One of the prime accused wasn’t suspended from AMMA, he voluntarily stepped away. They even invited the alleged perpetrator back into their fold while the survivor was forced to leave. She put out a statement saying that the same association that’s supposed to stand by her is inviting one of the prime accused back into their fold. At that time, they had no moral obligation to resign and start a new leadership? Today, when all these cases are coming up, they chose to resign. It is a blatant cop-out.

The committee submitted its report to the Kerala government in December 2019, but it was only made public on August 19, 2024. What’s your reaction to it?
This happened here because a survivor spoke up in 2017 and continues to fight her fight. This happened here because the collective (WCC) came together and we went to the Chief Minister. It has been seven long years since we have started the collective, and four and a half years of us repeatedly asking and never backing down and questioning why the report was not coming out.

They tried to sweep the report under the carpet, and we didn’t allow it. And it takes time and effort. Four and a half years of delay means women losing out on their careers. Everybody wants to hear about who did what, where and when, but nobody wants to talk about what will happen to the women once they come out. Who is going to take care of them?

Do you think in the coming days, more stakeholders from the industry, especially the male actors, should speak up?
When it comes to women’s safety, the onus is always on women to prove their innocence. The fact that they didn’t ask for it. Men are never held accountable. When everyone says this is our Malayalam film industry, the silence is deafening. We do expect more actors, directors and stakeholders to speak. If their involvement comes in at the right time, not later, this can benefit the film industry in a big way. This is not a situation where you can say it does not affect me, so I’ll just be quiet until the storm passes. The storm is here to stay. Too many of us have been impacted by the wrongful ways of the industry for more powerful people to be quiet.

Ram Gopal Varma tweeted that, ‘If Malayalam film industry has been exposed by the Hema Committee, which has been constituted only for the Malayalam industry, then unless committees are formed for each of the other language industries, how will one know what’s happening there’?
What is happening in the Malayalam film industry is phenomenal because there is a certain growth in allyship in our society, because we have a civic consciousness which keeps us accountable that way. We (Malayalam society) have a civic consciousness that dissents against our government and structures. So, it’s not surprising that this is happening in Kerala. But there is such deafening silence from other industries. If you think there are no cases happening in other film industries, you are living in a fool’s paradise. It’s such a welcome change that in Kolkata, Bengali women and filmmakers have asked for a similar panel study. This is not a Malayalam cinema centric issue. Yes, it’s happening here, and we are cleaning up our house. But look at your own houses. What’s happening there? Are we taking care of the women?

Like you rightly said, the larger point here is what are we collectively doing as a society to safeguard women’s rights?
We need to understand that it's not just an industry-based issue, it's the collective approach towards women. Do we even consider them as individuals and human beings? Or are they fitting into a narrative of patriarchal structure that benefits us to check boxes? We're trying to say that they treat us as human beings. Do not get scared when we ask for our rights, because us getting our rights does not mean you losing out on your freedom. But in case you're scared and you're opposing this, then in some way you're benefiting from this exploitation.
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On pay disparity being attributed to an actor’s market value and not the gender
“If the Hema committee has said that the pay disparity exists, there’s enough evidence to prove that. It’s easy for top-level actors to say that it’s about how you fill the theatres. Do these top-tier male actors take a pay cut for the producer if their next three films fail? From the time I have acted in Uyare (2019), I have not gotten a penny more because I have been told, ‘but market value’. For the first time in 18 years, a producer suggested profit sharing to me. When a movie does really well, male actors are always considered in the profit sharing. It’s unheard of to give that option to a female actor.”