Opinion Kerala case has a silver lining, breaks a silence

On Monday, over five years after the trial began in a case that rocked the Malayalam film industry, becoming one of the most keenly followed proceedings in Kerala, the district and sessions court in Ernakulam pronounced its verdict: The first six accused in the 2017 abduction and sexual assault of a woman actor, including prime accused Pulsar Suni, were found guilty on multiple counts, including gang rape, wrongful confinement, destruction of evidence and taking and distributing obscene images. Other accused were found not guilty, including actor Dileep, whose alleged role in masterminding the attack was seen as a reflection of the industry’s rampant misogyny. Yet, supporters of the survivor have refused to be paralysed by dismay over the outcome. They have, instead, once again rallied behind the slogan “Avalkkoppam” — I’m with her — that had brought them together.

Since 2017, when the survivor went to the police, this solidarity, and the entrenched silence that it has helped break, has been the silver lining that glimmered through the cloud that hung over the case. Waiving her right to anonymity, the survivor had written in an Instagram post in January 2022 about finding strength in her community of supporters. The Women in Cinema Collective (WCC), which was formed in 2017 in response to the incident, prevailed on the Kerala government to set up a committee headed by Justice K Hema that same year to look into the Malayalam film industry’s culture of harassment and intimidation. The Committee’s report — the first of its kind in the country — was submitted in 2019 and made public last year. It laid bare an ugly reality where sexual favours were often demanded in exchange for work and where women were denied basic facilities like toilets and changing rooms. As more women felt encouraged to come forward with their stories of mistreatment and abuse, a space opened up for conversations that had never happened before. Film sets across the country were, for the first time, brought under the ambit of the POSH Act — mandated by the Kerala High Court in response to a petition by the WCC.

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With the state government saying that it will appeal the trial court’s decision, the road to justice may yet wind on. But the dents and cracks in the structures of power across India’s film landscape, which have long determined who is heard and who is silenced, can no longer be papered over. Solidarity and courage have enabled the journey so far; a larger reckoning must go on.