The sexual assault of a young Malayalam film actress shook Kerala in February. The arrest of and bail denial to superstar Dileep, shows up the rot in Kerala’s film industry, a rot that needs urgent clean-up, says VR Jayaraj
Even in her scariest nightmare, a leading Malayalam film actress would not have imagined that something like this could ever happen to her. She was on her way from the sets of her under-production movie in Thrissur, her hometown in central Kerala, to Kochi, the State’s commercial capital 85 km away, on that cursed night of February 17, 2017 in a car driven by a young man arranged by the film’s producers.
At some point of the trip, another vehicle blocked her car, there was commotion and some goons got into the vehicle. The horror of what happened after that in the moving car, is something that she would never want to recall.
This was no movie. It was happening to her for real. The actress was tortured for the next two-three hours in the most unimaginably brutal ways by a man later identified as Sunil Kumar aka Pulsar Suni. He abused and assaulted her and recorded the whole thing on his mobile phone. All through, he kept telling her that he was not doing this for himself but for a ‘quotation’ (a mafia term in Kerala for a contract job). Their purpose served, they abandoned her, the car and the driver at some place in Kochi. From there, she was taken to actor-producer-director lal’s house where she recounted the horror tale. lal, with the help of local Congress MlA PT Thomas, brought the police in.
Suni and the others were arrested within a week but the man who gave him the ‘quotation’ continued to be at large. Though the actors’ outfit and other film-related organisations in Kerala kept silent on the horror one of their own had to suffer, the media and the society pursued it relentlessly, forcing the cops to act. Surprising the society with their determination, the police arrested superstar Dileep, the most powerful film personality in Kerala whose influences have travelled beyond the borders of the industry, for plotting the attack on July 10, 153 days after the incident.
Accused of giving the Rs 1.5 crore ‘quotation’ to Suni to sexually assault the actress and video-graph her in the compromising situation, Dileep, owner of an allegedly Rs 800-crore empire that has branched into every imaginable field like real estate and restaurants, is now lodged at the sub-jail at Aluva, his hometown near Kochi, amid criminals and mosquitoes.
If what the police say about the plot is true, Dileep does not deserve pardon. He wanted Suni to subject the actress to fiendish persecution as an act of revenge because he thought she had played a pivotal role in the developments that led to the collapse of his first marriage with dancer-actress Manju Warrier. According to the police, the superstar wanted to use the video of the incident to prevent her from getting married.
The folly of friendships and associations in present-day Malayalam film industry were revealed in the days preceding Dileep’s arrest. The actors’ outfit, Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA), stood behind him despite the actress also being a member of it. Its president, Innocent, a lok Sabha member of the left, and two executive members, M Mukesh and KB Ganeshkumar, both left MlAs, went on to have a verbal duel with the media in Dileep’s defence.
A National Award winning actor demanded the actress undergo a polygraph test while Dileep accused her being a close friend of her tormentor Suni. Prominent leaders and members of AMMA, even women, felt no shame in woman-bashing. Innocent said: “There is nothing called a casting couch in the Kerala film industry. However, women with bad character may be sharing beds.”
What do you call itIJ Adding insult to injury or, as they say in Malayalam, putting chilly power on the wound, asks Joseph TS, who worked as a production controller in the industry. “I stopped being part of it when devil started to dominate filmdom. It is no longer a place where people debate cinema and creativity. It is cut-throat business and only those within cliques thrive and survive. Others are sidelined and victimised. It is no longer a field where people with individuality and creativity want to go. That is what happened to this actress. First, she was a woman. Second, she had fallen into the bad books of the most powerful individual in the industry,” he says.
If there is any substance in the stories doing the rounds in the industry and outside, Dileep symbolises the rot that has crept into it in the recent years. The AMMA, presently trapped in a tax-evasion scandal, was formed as a collective effort to help movie artists. But the story of actor TP Madhavan, its first general secretary who is now languishing in an oldage home, proves that it has no intention to fulfill that mission. There are several other such names. Apart from not helping those who needed it, AMMA has a history of specialising in victimisation of actors who question their injustices. Thilakan, one of the most eminent Malayalam movie actors, was a victim of AMMA for this reason. He was banned from the industry by AMMA, the superstars and their associates unofficially, though they stoutly deny it.
“The rot is not limited to AMMA. It has affected all sectors of the State’s film industry,” says a reputed cinematographer, who did not want to be named for obvious reasons. The superstars ensured the destruction of MACTA (Malayalam Cine Technicians’ Association) because its leaders backed Thilakan, claim those working in the industry. In its place, they propped up a new organisation, Film Employees’ Federation of Kerala (FEFKA). Dileep had allegedly led the machinations to split of the Film Exhibitors’ Federation when it put forward some conditions regarding film screenings. A new outfit was formed with Dileep as its leader.
“Dileep is a symptom, may be a major one but he is not the end all of it. The rot is much deeper,” another cinematographer says. “The superstars decide everything. They make the scriptwriter change the screenplay in ways that give more emphasis to their character. If the director does not agree with them, they manage to influence the producer and change the director. They decide which director to use; which actors and actresses to cast. I will be a fool if I say this trend was born yesterday. It was there all along but this has become the norm under megastars,” he adds.
The superstar reign does not end here. They have their ways of deciding which distributor should supply the films to theatres and the terms and conditions thereof. “Dileep is not just an actor. He is a film producer, distributor and exhibitor. Though he may not, like several other stars, have any visible association with these companies, they follow his dictates and everybody, right from the producer to exhibitor are forced to obey them,” Williams, a former production co-ordinator, tells you. “look at the success rate of the Malayalam releases and you will get a rough idea of how the film industry works here,” he points out.
On an average, the Kerala film industry sees about 125 releases a year. Not even 60 per cent of these films collect the money spent in their making and only 30 per cent are termed a success. Yet, the number of releases doesn’t come down. People continue to make films and become paupers and new producers are brought in. Who are the people ensuring this strange industry stabilityIJ The answer is obvious and they survive, thrive and dominate,” a director who prefers to remain anonymous for fear of losing films due to the ‘superstar menace’, tells you.
It is here that the reported findings of the Income Tax Department and Enforcement Directorate about Dileep’s movie business become relevant. Dileep has done 137 films since 1992. At present, he is being paid Rs 3 crore for a project but the sleuths say he has a business empire worth Rs 800 crore. He has financial interests in movie production, distribution and exhibiting sectors and is allegedly involved in real estate and restaurants too.
“Almost all the leading actors have similar businesses. Of course, they have the right to do any business they like but the problems arise when one uses foul methods to further those interests. The problem gets further accentuated when they use people like Suni to get dirty jobs done. The tragedy is much bigger when the involvement of such people becomes apparent,” the director rues.
“We don’t worry about that. There are other people who are looking into it. Our job is to find the culprits and we are in the process of doing it,” a top police official says when asked about the illegal dealings taking place in the State’s film industry.
He says that the probe into the abduction and sexual assault on the young actress and the conspiracy behind it has reached a crucial stage and that the police are preparing to interrogate more prominent persons from the film industry and outside. “There can be more arrests,” he warns. Dileep, allegedly the chief conspirator, is the 11th accused in the case whereas Suni, the hired goon, is the first.
Immediately after the abduction and assault of the actress, there were rumors that a superstar was behind the attack. However, after the arrest of Suni a week later, Marxist Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan stirred a hornets’ nest by announcing that there was no conspiracy behind the attack, raising suspicions that he was giving an indirect order to the police to not look for a plot. The probe that had gone almost cold for sometime after Suni’s arrest took momentum after the Women in Cinema Collective, a new outfit of women working in the Kerala film industry, took up the cause of the actress and mounted public pressure. Added to this was the appearance of a letter written by Suni from the prison to Dileep asking for the money he had been promised for the job. There were also disclosures about the phone calls he had made to Dileep’s friend and actor Nadir Shah and manager Sunil Raj aka Appuni.
Dileep, Shah and Appunni were questioned by the police for 13 long hours but the actor claimed that the police had called him to record his statement over the complaint he had been lodged with the Director General of Police that Suni was blackmailing him with the letter he wrote from prison.
The superstar was arrested on July 10 and the very next day sent to the sub-jail. A lower court and the Kerala High Court have already rejected his bail pleas while the police are making efforts to submit the chargesheet within the mandatory 90-day period.
“Many men and women in the film industry and elsewhere have reason to worry,” a former production co-ordinator says. left actor-MlA Mukesh, with whom Suni had worked as a driver, has already been questioned. Congress MlA Anwar Sadath has been questioned too. As per reports, leading actress and Dileep’s present wife Kavya Madhavan, who was questioned along with her mother Shyamala, was unable to answer many police queries. Suni had told the police that he had dropped the memory card containing the visuals of the assault of the actress at laksyah, a garment trading firm run by Kavya in Kochi. Just the other day, the police questioned, reportedly over the phone, actress-singer Rimi Tomy, known to be close to Dileep. She was part of a performance tour abroad with Dileep’s team and may have crucial information in the assault case of the young actress.
According to veterans in the Kerala film industry, this case and its outcome could be of big significance.
Judging by the nature of the ongoing probe, the police are sure to come up with some shocking findings that could be painful for many.
The mental and physical pain the young actress had to suffer is still disturbing and troubling the people. But the seriousness with which the police, the public and the State media have taken up the issue has paved the way for a much-needed clean-up in the film industry.