look news india
Mollywood Controversy: According to the Justice Hema Committee report, the Malayalam film industry is controlled by only 10 to 15 people and it runs according to their will. These are the powerful people who impose restrictions on actors and actresses. But when a woman comes to them with a complaint of harassment, they ignore it.
This report of Justice Hema Committee was released on August 19, many clarifications of which are gradually coming out. The committee mentioned such 'powers' and 'power groups' at least 70 times in its report.
The report highlights how women and men are bearing the brunt of the 'wrath of the powerful lobby that controls the industry'. Calling this powerful lobby a 'mafia', a leading actor spoke about how they do as they please, how they issue ban orders without giving any reason or even expel them from the industry forever.
Justice Hema has said in her report, 'During the investigation, we realized that the Malayalam film industry is under the control of some male producers, directors and actors. He controls the entire Malayalam film industry and has influence over other people working in cinema.'
According to this, this lobby is so powerful that anyone who raises voice against it can be thrown out of the industry at any time. Another member of the committee, K B Valsalakumari writes, 'This is a form of cultural hegemony, in which people in high positions create a culture in which they maintain beneficial dominance.' Another member and actress T Sharada writes that 'Gender discrimination takes place in the film industry.'
According to the committee, the restraining order used as a tool to control people is declared 'illegal and unconstitutional'. The report also states that 'if members of a powerful group are not happy with someone's work in cinema even due to personal bias, all the members of the group come together and that person is stopped from working in cinema.'
No formal order is issued to ban someone, but if a member of the group says this actor is causing 'trouble', it slowly reaches everyone and becomes a formal order. There will be no evidence to prove the ban, but the person who has been banned gets to know about it, the report said.
If the case is related to an actress, the reason for banning her is usually 'Me Too'. This is a global campaign in which women have raised their voice against sexual harassment by men.
This lobby of Kerala films is so powerful that it forces even the film houses to dance to their tunes. According to the report, 'The (Kerala) Film Chamber of Commerce issues the No Objection Certificate and it is very easy for them to stop the release of the film. Therefore, these people warn any producer to give a chance to someone else instead of giving work to that particular actor or actress and not take any risk.
These lobbies also control the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) set up under the Act to prevent sexual harassment of women at the workplace. However, the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA) has strongly denied the presence of any powerful lobby in Malayalam cinema.
However, there is no clue yet as to who are the 'powerful' people involved in this 'mafia' gang of Kerala films. Because, the High Court has allowed the release of only a redacted portion of the report, which does not contain the names of the accused or the complainants.