Malayalam actress Sowmya recounts sexual assault by Tamil director
Malayalam actress Sowmya recounts sexual assault by Tamil director
The Justice Hema Committee Report is heavily impacting on actress from various industries.
Now recent case that comes up is of Malayalam actress Sowmya who recalled a sexual assault on her by a Tamil film director while she was in college. She narrated the incident saying that it took her 30 years to come out of it.
Reportedly, the Hema Committee Report has encouraged many artists from the film industry to step forward and open up on the sexual assault they faced in the industry and name their perpetrators and initiate legal action.
Although as of now, the allegations and cases have been found within the state of Kerala, popular Malayalam actress Sowmya has now shared her unpleasant experience with a Tamil film director. She was raped by the director for a year and recalling the traumatic period, she also revealed that the director inserted a rod in her genitals for ‘entertainment’.
In an interview Sowmya spoke on how she was groomed as a sex slave by a married Tamil director. She however, refused to disclose the identity of her perpetrator at this time. She said she would reveal the man’s identity to the special police team formed by the Kerala government, which is investigating multiple cases of alleged sexual assault in Mollywood.
She went on to add that she was 18 and in her first year of college. She is from a very sheltered background and her parents knew nothing about movies. This opportunity (to act in a Tamil film) came through her college theatre contact. As a child she was enamoured by the actor Revathy, who lived near her house at that time.
Sowmya recalled that she had voiced her discomfort on being around the man after their first meeting and revealed that the director told her father they had spent large amounts of money on her screen test and arm-twisted her family into allowing her to act.
Sowmya also stated that she felt obligated to act in that movie.
In the midst of the first outdoor shoots he didn’t speak to her. The agreement was that his wife would be the director but that was on paper… in reality he was directing the entire movie.
“And so she was under his control… and he gave her the ‘angry silent treatment’ like a lot of men who used to be doing. And because of their conditioning in patriarchy… about authority figures, particularly intimidating men who express anger very easily, she was very scared.
Sowmya also revealed of the director’s daughter accusing him of rape.
Sowmya also shared that the director would claim her to be his daughter when his own daughter had left, accusing him of rape.
She further went on to open up that they told her that she (the daughter) was lying. So they brought her (Sowmya) into their home and at that time around she was a teenager rebellious at home and suddenly this couple was nice to her bribing her with good food and milkshakes, and telling her good things. That was the grooming process… he knew fully well what he was doing.
Sowmya then recalled the sexual assault and rape that happened on
one fine day, when his wife wasn’t around, this man, while calling her as his daughter, kissed her and she completely froze and was desperate to tell her friends but couldn’t as she was ashamed, thinking she had done something wrong and that she was obligated to be nice to this man.
“So I continued going for practice, for dance rehearsals… every day I went back and gradually, step by step, this man completely used my body to his advantage. At some point he forced himself on me… so he raped me. This went on for close to a year while I was in college.”
Sowmya further said that the man messed with her brain as he would call her his daughter and also wanted a child with her.
In the 90s, Sowmya did three films which were all hits. However, the sexual abuse continued in the Malayalam film industry. “A co-star who sexually abused me has now been named in the Hema Committee report” she said adding that “directors, actors, and technicians” continued to sexually abuse.
News Edit KV Raman
