A Malayalam actress, Sowmya, has recently accused a Tamil director of severe charges of sexual harassment, including sexual assault. In her recent interview, she stated that the filmmaker “cocooned” her as a sexual object and sexually assaulted her, additionally kissing her unauthorized while his wife was out of the house. Sowmya said in the interview that she was pressured to agree to be part of one of his films after feeling overwhelmed by him at first glance.
Although she did not reveal the name of the director, Sowmya said she would reveal his identity to the special police team set up by the Kerala government to probe sexual harassment cases in the film production houses.
Sowmya gave a particular reminder of a certain man who one day, when his wife was not at home, called Sowmya a daughter and kissed her on the mouth; Sowmya froze into silence and helplessness and could not tell her friends the incident, so she thought to herself that the man was right, what she did was wrong.
She stated ongoing harassment where she alleged, “At some point, he forced himself on me… so he raped me. This happened for almost one year while I was in college, though he used to call me his ‘daughter. ’
As Sowmya elaborated on the effects of these experiences, she said, “It took me 30 years to get over this feeling of shame. I still wanted to tell other survivors to report all forms of abuse. ”
These allegations come against the backdrop of numerous other molestation charges that have taken place in the Malayalam film industry after the release of the Justice Hema Committee Report in the early half of this current month. Till now, FIRs have been lodged against nine film personalities, including Mukesh Siddique Jayasurya and others, for the complaints lodged by women actresses.
Disclaimer: This article contains the victim’s name as she is involved in the case and has also come into the public domain. Such matters need to be handled with great caution, respecting the people involved in the issue.
