Justice Hema Committee Report: ‘Members of WCC are banned because they speak out against atrocities in cinema’ 

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The Justice Hema Committee report also sees merit in the completely “illegal and unconstitutional” banning of actors that exists in Malayalam cinema to appease the power groups. “Anyway, banning in cinema is a reality as seen from evidence placed before the committee. The power group has no authority to ban. It is illegal and unconstitutional. It was brought to the notice of the committee that even though earlier producers were the most powerful people in cinema, the situation has changed drastically,” read the report. It discusses the rise in the power cliques that are headed by actors whose fame and money dictates their position in the group. “Producers cannot independently decide anything in cinema, it is stated by many witnesses. The actors who have grown powerful by money and fame decide who will be the hero or heroine or who will direct the movie or who will be the scriptwriter etc… If the producer does not act as instructed by the power group, they can easily see that the producer does not get any prominent actor, director, script writer, technicians or others to work in the cinema proposed to be produced by them. There are many instances where a director or producer did not get the person of their choice to work in cinema. Therefore, no producer in cinema dares to allow any person who is banned from the powerful group, to work in their movie.” 

The report also laid bare the sad truth of how many of these actors banned by these power group aren’t even aware of such shadow banning till it is too late. In fact, there are many players who ensure such decisions are passed on to the various branches of the food chain to ensure this becomes a blanket ban. “False information about lack of dates, or other information is passed around. Such crooked moves are made without her knowledge, behind her back, and she gets to know it very late. By then, the chance has passed.” 

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Taking cognisance of the struggles of WCC, who are penalised for being a voice of reason, the report stated, “WCC members have a strong case that they were all banned from cinema because they openly stated undesirable things that happen in cinema. None of them is given any chance to work in cinema. They are practically kept away by those who are offended by what members of WCC stated openly against the atrocities in cinema and from the association, AMMA.” 

In fact, witnesses from the WCC have spoken to the three-member panel about the blatant disregard for the throttling of their opportunities. “Many men have openly stated to them that the members of WCC will not be allowed to work in cinema. Instead of taking members of WCC in a movie, they go for other women who are available. Certain other producers are scared to take members of WCC, since they believe that by choosing them, they would be offending powerful members of AMMA,” revealed the report. 

In what was a very scathing attack on the way these power groups function, the report stated, “An actress who was getting a lot of offers from several sources, prior to the formation of WCC stopped getting offers for which she would have normally been considered. In an analysis of what has been stated before us, we are convinced that members of WCC are generally not considered for working in cinema, for the mere reason that they are members of WCC who protested against atrocities in cinema.” The bottom line of how the only way for members of the WCC to get quality opportunities is to go against the grain of why the collective was started was brought to the fore through the findings in the report. “The only member of WCC who is getting several offers in cinema is one of the founder members. She is the only one woman who repeatedly stated that there is no problem for women in cinema and that she had not even heard about any sexual harassment on any women in cinema, etc… In this context, if her evidence is analysed, we are persuaded to believe that she is deliberately not speaking against men or the industry only because of her selfish motive not to get ousted from the Malayalam film industry. No value can be attached.” 

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In response to the Hema Committee Report, the WCC posted a note on social media, which read, “It’s been a long journey for us! We believed that our fight for justice for all women wanting a dignified professional space in the film industry was the right fight. Today, we stand vindicated. The publishing of the Hema Committee report is another step that WCC has taken. This is the first time in the history of cinema that we have a report of how gender works int he film industry. We thank Justice Hema, Ms Sarada and Dr Valsalakumar for the long hours they have spent to create this report.”

Through the Justice Hema Committee Report, it is clear that there has been a solid agenda against WCC, and it is getting increasingly difficult for the actors with a voice to earn their livelihood. As Parvathy said in that actors’ roundtable, “In Hindi cinema, you have producers and production houses saying, ‘Come out and speak, you will not lose your job.’ And we don’t have that. That’s sad because Kerala is supposed to be progressive.”