Bans, diktats and open threats: Report details how all-male power group of 10-15 controls Kerala film industry

The committee, which mentions “power” and “power group” at least 70 times in its report, details how women and men are at the receiving end of “the wrath of the powerful lobby that… rules the industry”. A prominent actor quoted in the report describes the lobby as “the mafia” that expects everyone to do their bidding, failing which they issue orders for bans or permanent ouster from the industry, no reasons given.

“In the course of the study, we understood that the Malayalam film industry is in the clutches of certain producers, directors, actors – all male. They control the whole Malayalam industry and dominate other persons working in cinema… No man nor woman dare to utter any word which may offend anyone belonging to the power group, because such persons will be wiped off the industry by the powerful lobby,” (retired) Justice K Hema writes in the report.

Another member of the committee, K B Valsalakumari, writes, “It is a kind of imposition of cultural hegemony by which the superordinated create a culture in which their continued dominance is considered beneficial.”

The third member and yesteryear actor T Sarada puts it simply, “There is gender discrimination in the film world”.

According to the committee, the bans that are issued “illegally and unconstitutionally” work as a tool for subjugation.

“If a member of the power group is not pleased with someone in cinema because of even personal prejudice, all members of the power group join hands and such person is prevented from working in cinema,” the report says, adding that no notices are served to the individuals concerned.

The ban is never spoken of in public, but word that a particular actor is a “troublemaker” and hence persona non grata spreads from one person to the other till it becomes official. “No evidence will be available to prove the ban but the person who is banned will come to know about the banning,” the report reads.

In the case of women actors, the report says, a commonly line used to enforce a ban is that “she is a ‘Me Too’ person” – a reference to the global movement in which women came out with sexual assault charges against predatory men.

In certain cases, film bodies arm twist producers into not casting a ‘banned’ artiste. “It is the (Kerala) Film Chamber of Commerce which issues ‘No objection certificate’ and it would be very easy for them to prevent the release of a movie. Therefore, the producer who is warned by the power group not to cast a particular actor will opt to produce his movie by casting another actor and not take any risk,” says the report, quoting Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci and his theory of hegemony – the intellectual and moral subjugation of the less privileged by the ruling class.

Given the power dynamics, any Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) – mandated under The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace [Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal] Act – would be ineffective, the report says.

“Constitution of ICC comprising of persons in cinema will be of no use at all to protect any woman in Malayalam film industry from sexual harassment/assault/abuse/ in cinema… As long as power structures exist in the Malayalam film industry, they will take full control of the ICC,” the report reads. Instead, the committee recommends an independent body such as a tribunal to adjudicate the cases of sexual assault and abuse in the film industry.

Actor Maala Parvathi, who walked out of an ICC constituted by the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA), told The Indian Express, “I resigned from the ICC of AMMA because despite us members recommending action against an accused in a sexual harassment case, the body failed to move even a finger. The accused even let out the name of the survivor.”

AMMA has, however, categorically denied the existence of the power group in Malayalam cinema.

Two days before he stepped down as AMMA general secretary following an actor’s allegation that he raped her, yesteryear actor Siddique had said, “In my film career, I have not heard about such a power group. There is no mafia either.”

Director Anjali Menon, a founding member of the Women in Cinema Collective (WCC), told the Indian Express, “There are many existing unsaid rules and power structures within the industry which tend to marginalise a certain section of people, predominantly women and people who have less power. When a clear statement that spells out what’s clearly wrong in the industry comes out, then this power structure gets dismantled… The report coming out is not in the interest of people who want to continue to hold on to those old, regressive power structures.”

Actor and WCC member Rima Kallingal pointed out that while these power structures exist even in other film industries, including Hollywood, it’s the resolve of Kerala’s “vocal women” that has helped to unearth many of these dark secrets. “It’s just that we have vocal women and a whole movement fuelled by a modern open-minded society to work against these power structures in this (Malayalam) industry,” Kallingal said.

Talking about the many covert and overt ways in which the power structures work, Kallingal said, “It’s a totally male dominated world… The power is (reflected) not just in the biggest of things where there is rape or sexual harassment or people have lost jobs, but even in the smallest of things, the microaggressions. The way women are spoken to on movie sets, the way you are always told that you bring no value to the movie, the way women are sidelined at every stage of filmmaking.”

Actors and technicians who have fought for the release of the committee report since 2019, when it was first submitted, point out that the very fact that the government sat on such an impactful report for so long is proof of the power the lobby wielded.

“They (government) released the report as they had run out of options to keep it under wraps,” says actor Sajitha Madathil.