The Women in Cinema Collective (WCC) has issued a strong statement, a day after a Malayalam serial actor accused her director of mental and sexual harassment. In a Facebook post, the group vowed to ensure that the industry soon has an Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) as per Indian law. “Today, in Kerala, if any woman reports the difficulties faced by her in the film industry, immediately a question is asked: What has the WCC done about it? This has become a norm. But we view this as a sort of acceptance of the organisation- WCC- by the people,” WCC said in the post.
“However, we cannot accept such questions to WCC as innocent, or curious, when you haven't asked the same question to the police, that is getting paid to enforce the law, or to the administration, or to the huge organisations in the film industry that have survived over the years by taking lakhs of rupees as membership fees.” They said that the people asking the questions were also those who stood with the accused in the actor assault case. “We will not be able to progress even one step further without consulting the ICC. We also will not take a step back until it has been set up.”
The post came after prominent female television actor Nisha Sarangh, 'Neelu' of show 'Uppum Mulagum' alleged that director of the show R Unnikrishnan was taking revenge for her ignoring his advances and for having complained against him to Channel head Sreekantan Nair. She accused him of misbehaving with her and sending her inappropriate messages.
