The Justice Hema Committee report on the cases of harassment and exploitation of women in the Malayalam film industry has shaken the entire country. Recently, a rape case was registered against Malayalam film actor Nivin Pauly on Tuesday on the complaint of a 40-year-old woman. Now another Malayalam actress has revealed that she was raped by a director for a year.
Malayalam actress Soumya has accused a Tamil director of sexual harassment. In an interview, the actress alleged that the film director ‘groomed’ her as his sex slave and raped her. The actress said that once the director kissed her when his wife was not at home. Soumya revealed that she decided to act in one of the accused’s films. However, the actress admitted that she was “not comfortable with the man” even after their first meeting.
In an interview with NDTV, Soumya said that she was 18 years old at that time. She said, “That director used to call me his daughter and also tortured me mentally. He wanted a child with me.” The actress did not reveal his name. She said that she will reveal the identity of the person before the special police team formed by the Kerala government, which is investigating several cases of alleged sexual harassment in Mollywood.
The actress said, “I was 18 years old. I was in my first year of college at that time. I come from a very sheltered background and my parents knew nothing about films. The opportunity (to act in a Tamil film) came through my college theatre contacts. As a child I was fascinated by actress Revathi, who lived near my house at that time… I was in a fantasy world. So I went to this couple (director and his wife) for a screen test…”
“I was a kid, I didn’t know much,” said Soumya, hinting that her family was forced to allow her to act. She said the director was behind it, who told her father that he had spent a lot of money on screen tests. Soumya said she was “forced” to act in the film. “During the first outdoor shoot, he (director) didn’t talk to me. The agreement was that his wife would be the director, but it was on paper…actually he was directing the whole film,” she said.
She said, “One day, when his wife was not around, this man kissed me, calling me his daughter. I was completely shocked. I wanted to tell my friends this, but couldn’t… I was ashamed, I felt I had done something wrong and I should be nice to this man. So I kept going for practice, for dance rehearsals… Every day I went back and slowly, step by step, this man used my body to his full advantage. At some point, he forced himself on me… he raped me. This went on for about a year while I was in college.”
Soumya claimed that even though the director used to call her his ‘daughter’, he sexually harassed her. She said, “It took me 30 years to overcome this feeling of ‘shame’ and heal… I encourage victims to report all such abuse.” These allegations have surfaced at a time when several cases of sexual harassment in the Malayalam film industry have shocked the entire country.