After finishing shooting on the set, I went to the bathroom to change my clothes. I comfortably went in and out regularly. As soon as I came out of the bathroom, actor Jayasuriya was there and immediately grabbed me from behind and pinned me. I was totally scared, I didn't know what to do for two seconds, and suddenly I pushed her hard. He understood that I would not say yes to such things.' There are words, actress Sonia Malhar, the victim of the Malayalam industry, who endured the sly behavior of the philanderer… For the last long time, the big actresses of the Malayalam industry are coming forward on the issue of sexual harassment and the names of the big heads of the entire industry are coming forward. In fact, raising voice against these dirty demands of 'Sex for Role' against women started from 2017, but actress Sonia Malhar came out and talked about the atrocities on her in front of the public and then 68 women also spoke openly about it. 'Frontpage Insights' spoke to actress Sonia Malhar to know the 'Real Kerala Story' of the Malayalam film industry, which is currently producing the best films in the country, that is, the film industry of Kerala, who revealed the dirty secrets of the outwardly glamorous Havasi industry… But shame' Sonia started from the beginning, 'In 2009 I started working as a junior artist in the Malayalam film industry. Everything was going well, got work in many films, but then in 2013 this happened to me. (Sonia's face became very calm as soon as she said this) I feel ashamed even to speak now. But I have to speak, because this is not happening to me alone, many of my friends like me have had similar incidents, but those people cannot speak. I want it all to stop, and have been single-handedly fighting the entire industry for so long. I am an ordinary lady and those people are big heroes, producers, directors, they have money, fame, power, connections, everything.' 'I was changing clothes and…' What happened to you on that day in 2013? Very quiet in the room… In a low voice, Sonia continued, 'It was 2013, the shooting of a movie was going on, Jayasuriya was the lead hero of the movie, and I was in that movie as a junior artist. The shoot went on all day, in the evening everyone got tired and packed up the shoot and went to change clothes next to the set. I changed my clothes in the outside bathroom. I comfortably went in and out regularly, but as soon as I came out of the bathroom, that Jayasuriya was there and immediately he grabbed me from behind and pinned me. I was very scared, I didn't know what to do for two seconds, and then I pushed her hard. He understood that I would not say yes to such things.' We can't fight with all these people' Jayasurya immediately started apologizing and saying, 'Sorry, I made a mistake. I'm sorry, I'll never do it again.' He started talking like that and I ran straight home. After going home and talking to my husband, he explained to me that there is no point in fighting with all these people. Our time and money will be wasted. And we left it at that. That night, I got a call from Jayasuriya apologizing again saying, 'You are a good girl, you are also a social worker and do a lot of good work. I apologize again.' This was the first experience in my life, then and even after that, I never in my life encouraged such people, nor did I say yes to them to get work.' 'Come on, sleep with me?' Sonia, has this ever happened to you since 2013? Sonia says, 'This has not happened physically, but there have been many experiences in messages or by speaking in front of each other. A lot of people asked me that. Openly asking, come on, will you sleep with me? If I don't, the film would have gone from my hand the very next day and another actress would have got the job. Asking for a WhatsApp number to make a bad video call, I would immediately block them. Because of this, I have passed up many films, but never said yes to these people.' After finishing the shoot, the dogs broke down on the actress who was going home. All these incidents were the roots of her coming to the public in 2017. A famous Malayalam film actress was going home at night after finishing a shoot and was sexually assaulted and molested by several men in her car. The very next day, the actress made the allegation through the internet and media and the government set up a committee to investigate. It was revealed that famous actor and producer Dileep's name was also included in it. Then there was a flurry of incidents and the actress came forward with such accusations. All these women got together and formed an organization called WCC (Women in Cinema Collective). The WCC shortly presented the matter to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and sought the formation of a special committee for a full investigation. The government supported the issue and retired Kerala High Court judge K. A committee headed by Hema was formed and the investigation started. No government action for 5 years after the report Hema committee did all the investigations for three years from 2017 and handed over the report to Kerala government in 2019. The government took no action against anyone for five years from 2019 to 2024, and an RTI was filed on 6 July 2024, demanding the report be made public. The government asked to hide the names of the victims and make the report public. But after this, a producer protested that if this report comes out, our image may be damaged, so the government asked to hide the names of the accused. But on August 13, the government decided that releasing this report would not make any difference and on August 19, the government released the report with the names of the accused. Well, since then a volcano erupted within the Malayalam industry. 'One has to be ready for sex when it beckons' a-a . No matter how old people are, they have created this kind of atmosphere, so that no woman coming from outside can refuse for this. If we are staying at a hotel for shooting, the nightly men will knock on our doors. If we talk about going to the police, we get threats to kill our lives and our entire family.' In this regard, many women also presented proof of WhatsApp messages and video calls against such demand. Sonia was pressured to withdraw the case by giving money, threats and allurements, when the case was filed, actor Jayasuriya's name was not told to anyone, so why suddenly put his name in front of the media now? Sonia says, 'When I filed the case, I did not give Jayasuriya's name in front of the media or anyone except the committee. After filing the case, many people in the industry have offered me money to withdraw the case. But I don't want to withdraw any case, I will stick to punishing these people. I come from a very normal family, I have never seen such a situation. After filing the case, I was receiving many threats so I spoke to my family and then took Jayasuriya's name in front of the media.' Jayasuriya sexually harassed one girl 8 times and did this only to you? Sonia explains, 'When such harassment happened to me, I felt that it might have happened by mistake. But when I filed the case and then all the actresses came forward, it came to know that this was not a mistake, Jayasuriya had done similar harassment to many girls. Only the name of the movie would change, the set would change, the girl would change, the rest of the incident would remain the same. Jayasuriya had also done such harassment with another girl, he has also filed a case. The same thing happened with her, the shooting was over and Jayasuriya came later and made obscene demands on her too. He was sexually harassed not just once, but 8-8 times. He has filed a case against everyone from the producer to the MLA.' Because of the politicians, no accused is being punished, even if so many women have made so many complaints, why is no action being taken against anyone? Sonia says in a sad voice, 'South film industry and politics are both linked together. Both are industries like brothers and sisters. Politicians have special friends in film industry, film industry has special friends in politics. So no people from the film industry are being punished at present. The only way to punish all these is if the central government helps in this. I request the Modi government with folded hands that you are the only one who can help in this now.' This actress committed suicide out of boredom. If this is happening to everyone, why is no one else speaking up? Showing the reason behind it, Sonia says, 'It happens to everyone, but many are afraid of losing their career, many are afraid of losing money, because if someone does such a case, their entire career will be exhausted. But I have no fear, I will not run a bit in this matter, I will speak and win the case. And this is not just happening recently, this kind of dirty harassment has been going on in South Industry for years. In 1974, the very beautiful Malayalam actress Vijayashree had to commit suicide for this reason. The director and producer of the film 'Ponnapuram Kotta' tortured her so badly that she finally committed suicide at the age of 21. 68 women over 10 men have sexual harassment case you were previously in the South Industry who made such a case? Sonia says, 'Yes, before I filed the case, no one spoke openly to the media. As soon as I filed the case, everyone got courage and everyone started telling their case, everyone filed a case. And it's not like this happens only with girls. When this kind of coming out started, a boy also came, who was harassed by a gay director. All together, 68 women have filed a case of sexual harassment against 10 men. Who are all these cases in the cupboard? Did the case? Telling the reason behind it, Sonia says, 'After that I was stuck in my family issues. I did not have time to put this case in the closet. My husband had cancer, he also died within a few years. I had two sons, their responsibility was also on me. My father-in-law also had cancer. My uncle suffered a stroke of paralysis in my pier. I lost all these relatives at the same time. All this was going on constantly and continuously so I avoided getting into all these other things.' Not just actresses, no woman in the industry is spared. Does this happen only to actresses or to all women associated with the film industry? Sonia Shonking gave a statement saying, 'Perhaps, the same happens with all the big and famous actresses. But those people do not speak. Take any big actress of south industry, same thing happens with them, but they don't talk openly. I don't understand why those people support all this. This is not limited to makeup artists, costume artists or actresses. The same thing is happening outside the movie industry. Everywhere women are being exploited, oppressed. But for the fear of losing their career, all those women are not talking openly.' 'AMMA' i.e. 'Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes' folded their hands and President Mohanlal resigned. On this, Sonia says, 'AMMA is not ready to take any action. Actor 'Mohanlal' was the president, then he resigned. If you have problem with such people. You know it's people's fault, so take them all out, why are you leaving everything? Don't be left out when it's time to raise your voice. Even though I am an ordinary small actress, if I raise so much voice, you are such a big actor, why do you keep silent and retreat? You know it is people's fault, so instead of keeping silent, support us.' 'Don't bear it, complain' women who don't come out for fear of losing their careers and don't raise their voice on such issues, what should they do? Sonia says to such victims, 'If this is happening to you, don't bear it at all, money and job will come from other places too but don't let your body be manipulated.'
Image Credit: (Divya-Bhaskar): Images/graphics belong to (Divya-Bhaskar).
'I came out of the bathroom, it stuck me back': Actress Sonia Malhar says Malayalam industry's sad picture, 'This happens to big actresses too'
