Parvathy Thiruvothu on Justice Hema Committee Report: ‘I lost all hope about it being released’

Parvathy Thiruvothu opened up about the various nuances of the Justice Hema Committee Report, what it means to her, to Malayalam cinema, and the rest of the Indian film industry.

By: Entertainment Desk

Chennai | August 22, 2024 07:53 PM IST

4 min read

Parvathy talks about Hema Committee Report.

The Justice Hema Committee Report has created ripples within the Malayalam film industry. The report spoke in extent about the discrimination and exploitation of women in the industry, and has become the talking point across many sectors over the past few days. “I am not ok with people saying, ‘Malayalam industry is so rotten inside.’ No, we are good inside, which is why we are fixing it. The places where you don’t hear anything about, that’s where we should be worried about,” argued Parvathy Thiruvothu, in an interview with NDTV, where she discussed various aspects of the report, and what the release means to her.

“The sense of achievement is extremely bitter-sweet for us, mainly because the first deposition happened sometime in 2018 and the report was submitted sometime in 2019. It took so many years for it to come out. The redacted version of it. In these years, we have had to really beg and grovel and fight,” said Parvathy, who was thankful to her strong support system, and the relentless questioning raised towards the government about not releasing this report. Delving deeper into how some aren’t reading the report for what it is, and are instead sensationalising it, Parvathy asserts that it is important to train the focus back on the bigger picture. “[Justice] Hema Commission report is a study of malpractices in the film industry. The report was generated so that there is work towards forming better workplace culture, and workplace practices that are government defined. Nobody would go against the law. Now, I think, people are more focused on the sensationalising aspects of it. So, it is currently still a struggle for us to throw the focus back on to the picture and say, ‘No no no, let us put our mind and hearts to what the matter is at hand.’”

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Even though Parvathy expresses a sense of vindication with the findings of the report finally seeing the light of the day, she reveals it wasn’t an easy process at all. “Since all the depositions were hand-written, and read back to us, it was traumatic and horrendous. But we turned up 6-7 hours a day, multiple days a week. We did it in the belief that it will benefit us, and the women who come after us. But when we were told the report may never come out, it felt like the biggest betrayal. It sucked the soul out of us. In fact, I lost all hope that this would come out. This denial was the only way to protect myself,” revealed Parvathy, who shared that although it was vindication to their voices, she emotionally broke down when the report finally was out. “It wasn’t happiness. But now, it being in an official document definitely brings more seriousness to it and we feel quite vindicated frankly. But, I would say that this is just the beginning.”

The actor was also clear about not allowing this report to be used as an excuse to paint it as an expose of the Malayalam film industry. “This is the first time this is being done in any film industry, where a government-appointed committee has done a study on it and a report has come out. What I am more worried about is why there are no Internal Complaints Committee being formed in all film shootings? Isn’t that the law already? Indian cinema is a vast, diverse film industry. I feel like there is such a holding back. There is whitewashing. This beginning of the cleanup process will inspire other industries to do the same.”

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