‘Sex on demand’

The Hema Committee Report is explosive in its description of the widespread harassment of women workers.

Women who wish to enter the film industry, the report states, are told they have to “make ‘adjustments’ and ‘compromise’.’’ This translates to an expectation to make themselves available for “sex on demand”. An enabling atmosphere is created by attacking the reputation of women from the outset: “Many in the industry are made to believe that all women in the industry get into the industry or are retained only because they have sex with men in the industry.”

Actors who willingly appear in intimate or explicit scenes are branded as available. Some witnesses shared video clips, audio clips and screenshots of WhatsApp messages to prove that the predators included well-known figures in Malayalam cinema.

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Film shoots can be unsafe. The report mentions chilling night-time knocks on the door while at outdoor locations, repeated banging with force and the feeling that the door would collapse to let the men enter, are recurrent. “So, unless women take somebody from the family when they go for work, they fear that they will not be safe at the workplace,” the report states.

Only a portion of the report was released publicly in August, five years after the committee had submitted it to the state government. The available portions document that women often lack basic facilities during filming, including access to toilets and changing rooms. The harassment is also carried out virtually through rape threats, and bullying of family members. 

The Hema Committee report was commissioned through lobbying by Women in Cinema Collective, formed in 2017, following the public accusation by a senior actor against another. Collective members have termed the en masse resignation of the office bearers of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA) an act of cowardice and refusal to be held accountable.