BJP minister and actor Suresh Gopi on Tuesday blamed the media for the abuse scandal that has gripped the Malayalam film industry, putting his party — which has been trying to blame the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government for the mess — in a fix.
The actor-politician, who is the first BJP Lok Sabha member from Kerala, described the biggest scandal to hit the Malayalam film industry as “merely a fodder for the media” and accused journalists of “drinking blood by making the sheep fight”.
When reporters in Thrissur sought his comment on the allegations faced by senior filmmakers and actors, including CPM MLA Mukesh, Gopi lashed out at the media for “creating” the scandal in the Malayalam film industry.
“You are creating all this,” he said.
“I understand that this is your fodder. You go ahead and make money with that. No issues. But you are destabilising a huge enterprise. You are not only drinking the blood by making the sheep fight with each other, but you are also misleading the mindset of an entire community,” he added.
“The complaints are merely based on allegations. Who are you talking to? What are you telling the people? Are you the court? No, you’re not. The court will decide,” Gopi said before getting into his car.
The minister of state for tourism and petroleum also told the reporters to keep their questions specific to the place he was in.
“What you need to understand is you should go and ask AMMA (Association of Malayalam Movie Artists). Or you should ask me when I am stepping out of AMMA (office). You should ask me about my office-related issues when I am coming out of my office. When I come out of my home, you should ask me about my home,” Gopi told reporters.
Matters came to a head when reporters once again tried to get his reaction at another location after BJP state president K. Surendran made it clear that Gopi’s statements were not the party’s position on the burning issue in the film industry.
“My way is my right,” Gopi said, pointing his finger at reporters and pushing some of them away to open the door of his car.
Soon after Gopi’s first reaction, Surendran had told a media conference: “As of now, it’s the party president who is assigned by the party to speak for the party. What every party worker should do is to go in tandem with the party’s position.”
“But I don’t belittle his right as a film actor to air his personal opinion. Because he is a respected MP and also an actor,” Surendran added.
Gopi’s remarks come at a time the BJP is trying to pin the blame for the mess in the film industry on the LDF government for “deliberately delaying” the release of the Hema Committee report that studied gender disparity in the industry.
Constituted by the LDF government in 2017 in the wake of the kidnap and sexual assault on an actress, the three-member committee headed by retired high court judge K. Hema had dwelt on serious issues such as sexual abuse, casting couch and gender disparity in the industry.
