Yet another sexual assault complaint in the wake of the Justice Hema Committee report relating to the Malayalam film industry came up on September 5 in Kochi. A popular actress from the 1990s revealed that a well-known Tamil film director “groomed” her “as a sex slave”.
In an interview to NDTV and a lengthy chat with a fellow-celebrity on her YouTube channel, the actress revealed in graphic detail the mental, physical and sexual assaults she was subjected to by the director. She recalled that she was first abused at 18, when she was shooting for her debut film in Tamil. She alleged that the filmmaker approached her for the role in the presence of his wife and manipulated her by addressing her as “a daughter”.
During the course of the film’s shooting, the director allegedly told her that he was desirous of having a child with her. She was then in her first year of college. The actress said, she would reveal the name of the accused to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) appointed by the Kerala government to investigate complaints of sexual impropriety. “At some point, he forced himself on me… so he raped me,” she said, adding, “This went on for close to a year.” All along, she explained, he continued to call her his daughter. “He messed with my brain,” she added.