The Hema Committee’s revelations and the storm of sexual harassment allegations it has unleashed, starting with Bengali actor Sreelekha Mitra, have now scalped Malayalam filmdom’s topmost industry body, headed by one of its
biggest names.
Superstar actor Mohanlal on Tuesday stepped down as president of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA) and dissolved its executive committee in the light of the recent allegations of rape and sexual harassment against some of the panel members.
AMMA general secretary Siddique had resigned on Sunday after an actor accused him of sexual abuse. Its joint secretary Baburaj, who faces similar allegations, was among the 16 remaining committee members who resigned en masse on Tuesday along with Mohanlal.
The disbanding of the committee comes just a month and 28 days after it was constituted following a general body meeting and elections.
A statement from the organisation attributed the decision to “moral responsibility”, since some of the committee’s office-bearers are among those facing sexual abuse allegations.
“A general body meeting will be held within two months to elect a new executive committee,” the AMMA said.
Veteran actor Joy Mathew, one of the members of the now-dissolved committee, told reporters that the decision was taken to set an example.
“Normally, only someone who is facing an allegation would resign. But here we decided to set an example by dissolving the whole executive committee and pave the way for a new panel,” he said.
Mathew said the current panel would continue as an ad-hoc committee to disburse social welfare and medical relief payments to its members until the new panel is elected in two months.
Industry sources said the mass resignation and the decision to disband the committee was taken after consulting senior professionals such as actor Mammootty, who advised the panel to quit and pave the way for younger people to take over.
Mohanlal and Mammootty had faced severe criticism for their silence since the release of the Hema Committee report on gender discrimination and sexual harassment in the Malayalam film industry and the rash of sexual abuse allegations that followed against their industry colleagues such as Siddique and Baburaj.
The resignations came just hours after a seven-member special investigation team (SIT) of senior police officers, four of them women IPS officers, held its first meeting on Tuesday morning.
The SIT has been assigned to investigate all the complaints being lodged against movie industry professionals in the wake of the release of the Hema Committee report.
Apart from Siddique and Baburaj, the accused include actors Mukesh (also a CPM MLA), Jayasurya, Maniyanpilla Raju and Edavela Babu; filmmakers Ranjith and V.A. Shrikumar Menon; and several production controllers.
Ranjith resigned on Sunday as chairman of the Kerala Chalachitra Academy after Sreelekha accused him of touching her inappropriately during a meeting to discuss a film project in Kochi in 2009.
Police on Monday registered a case against Ranjith for alleged assault/ criminal force in outraging the modesty of a woman, based on an official complaint from Sreelekha.
A day after accusing Mukesh, Jayasurya, Raju and Babu, two production controllers and a lawyer named Chandrashekaran, an actor filed a complaint on Tuesday. She told reporters that a woman officer who is part of the SIT had spoken to her after she made the allegations.
