Tired of repeating my story, says actor who accused Malayalam cinema veteran of rape

“I am tired of explaining again and again what happened to me. I am physically tired. I am mentally tired, too,” the 28-year-old woman told The Indian Express. She claimed that in the years since she first came out with the allegations in a Facebook post in 2019, she did not receive the support of actors’ organisations.

However, with the spotlight now on issues faced by women in the Malayalam film industry, as detailed in the Hema Committee report released last week, she said she is happy to get “some attention” from actors and the media.

The woman claimed that she first met Siddique online, following which they exchanged messages, and he allegedly promised her a role in an upcoming film if she met him in person. They met in 2016 at a hotel in Kerala’s capital, Thiruvananthapuram, where he allegedly asked her if she could make “make some adjustments” for him, she claimed. “I was not sure what he really meant at first,” she said. Siddique then allegedly raped her in the hotel room and masturbated in front of her, she claimed. “I was scared for my life,” she said.

For three years after the alleged incident, the woman did not make the matter public. During this time, she did small roles in Malayalam films. However, it was in the aftermath of the alleged abduction and rape of a leading woman actor of the Malayalam film industry in 2017, and the discussions around the case involving prominent Malayalam film figures in subsequent years, that she decided to post on Facebook about her own experience.

“I was seeing the man who had raped me on screen related to this incident. This was very triggering for me,” she said. “I did not get the support of anyone at that time. Over a period of time, I became bold enough to face all the consequences,” she said, claiming that the Facebook post also led to her being sidelined in the film industry and subject to hate comments online.

On Saturday, she shared her story again with Malayalam TV channels. “I narrated everything that happened to me, because in the light of the Hema Committee report, I felt I should reveal how some people in the film industry assault women,” she said.

The woman actor is of the view that Siddique should now be kept out of film sets for a long time. She also said that she has started facing a backlash again online for levelling the allegations. “I am already under a lot of pressure,” she said, but she added that she won’t back down.

Asked whether she would lodge a police complaint, she said, “I will take my time and think about it. I am not thinking of lodging a complaint as of now.”