Kangana Ranaut opens up about Hema Committee Report, says she’s ‘disappointed with women’ who left her high and dry during MeToo

In an interview with The Lallantop, Kangana said, “I had vocally spoken about it, in favour of the women. But then their silence was bought with money. I kept searching for them, but they vanished. Some of them signed a few films with the same people, and I kept searching for them.” Kangana said that only some of the accusers were ‘victims’ of sexual misconduct, but others were willingly participating in nefarious activities. “I am very disappointed with these women. I was left alone, and became the problematic person,” she said.

The actor claimed that the industry then turned against her. Kangana said, “Those women came out and then I was trying to build some pressure, but the voices were muffled. If this report was released back then, all the industries would have been united. I was left alone and then they started filing cases, trying to put me behind bars.”

On February 17, 2017, a leading Malayalam film actress was abducted and sexually assaulted in her car by a group of men. A prominent actor was later implicated in the case which sparked outrage across Kerala and brought under the scanner the discriminatory treatment faced by women in the Malayalam film industry.

The Women in Cinema Collective (WCC), comprising women actors, producers, directors, and technicians, was formed in response to this incident. On May 18, 2017 the WCC submitted a petition to the Kerala Chief Minister demanding an inquiry into the incident, and larger gender issues plaguing the state’s film industry.