Effects of the recent Justice Hema Committee report on sexual harassment and gender discrimination in the Malayalam film industry are now being felt in the Telugu film industry too. Women actors in Tollywood have urged the Telangana government to make public the 2022 findings of a sub-committee report on workplace sexual harassment in the Telugu film industry. At the forefront of the movement is actress Samantha Ruth Prabhu.
Apart from Samantha, director Nandini Reddy, actress Lakshmi Manchu, singers Chinmayi Sriprada and Kausalya, anchors Suma Kanakala and Jhansi and several others shared a common message on their social media handles, urging the state government to go public with the report which has been gathering dust since 2022.
The sub-committee was set up in 2019 and consisted of senior government officials, police and civil society members. It looked into complaints of sexual harassment, workplace conditions, wages and other issues after speaking to various associations and people from Tollywood. It may be recalled that it was actress Sri Reddy’s semi-nude protest in 2018, which prompted the Telugu film industry bigwigs to announce the setting up of the sub-committee to look into complaints of actresses.