Actor Siddique And Director Ranjith Resign Over Mollywood #MeToo Files | English News

the MEO storm is Raging within the Malayalam film industry 7 days after portions of the HMA committee report were made public two prominent personalities have resigned from the Kerala films bod's post now the CD Malayalam actor sidik has resigned from Top Malala movie artist body following their rape and sexual assault allegations from an actress director Ranjit has also resigned from the Kerala chalachitra Academy chairman post following accusations of misbehavior that have been leveled against him by a Bengali actor even as the Kerala government formed a special team of high ranking police officers to probe the case another name has surfaced the victim who leveled allegations against sidik has also claimed to have had a troubling experience with actor riyas Khan as per the media reports the victim has alleged that riyas Khan called her late at night one day and spoke with sexual overtures the actress also said that riyas Khan asked her to introduce any friends who would cooperate with him pressure is building on the Kerala government as more voices demand action against the wrongdoers and actors say that the stand of the association of Malayala movie artists should not be wobbly and that the government should create a system to prevent such cases now they're calling for drastic changes within the actor's body the vice president of the top Kerala film Association has also blamed the organization for not probing the complaint against sidik back in 2018 the Kerala government which is facing flag from the opposition says the culprits will not be spared for let's open this up and go across to our guests we're joined by Advocate P Krishna Das spokesperson of the barhate janata party we have Dr nicool Patel political analyst and Kevin Matthews political analyst good morning to all of you Kevin Matthews uh this in fact is only exposing the rot within the industry big question that comes to for is was this happening without any sort of influence and patronage or these individuals whove been accused of carrying out uh such acts had some sort of Shield manam I want what has happened is really unforunate but it's a good thing that things are coming out and you have to load the efforts of the Govern Kera government who's actually brought this things out yes things are not ideal uh they sat on the report for under four years it's true but it's good it's good thing that at least things are coming out yeah and yes the government has assured us that there will be action and let us also wait for them okay but the unfortunate truth is such allegations have come out before as well but lack of action is uh the reason why it's being celebrated now that finally some action is being taken uh Krishna Das is it token action being taken they resigned from their post but these allegations are not new in the malam film industry it has come to the for before as well but it's immediately brushed under the carpet and the actors who are accused of these accusations continue with their roles continue getting roles in the film industry good morning all of you uh it's exactly as uh you mentioned see there is a huge failure on the part of the government uh it is nearly four years since this report was ready but uh even eventfully it has now come out this report has come out in 2024 after it was kept under the carpet for a number of years and what I understand is that the entire report has not come out the government has hidden parts of the report and it has only uh put out certain parts of the report and from the report what I understand is that uh there are huge allegations very serious allegations of uh uh sexual misconduct against the uh actresses in the film industry and uh an actress from Bengal she has come out a statement with renit the chairman of the film Academy and renjit did not even care to resign until more than for 24 hours had passed it and now he has just given his resignation yesterday uh just after the actor siddik the General Secretary of the organization of the actors Amma had resigned so there is a huge failure on the part of the government because uh this is a cognizable offense no complaint is necessary the government says that the actress have to come out with a complaint the actresses they have given out their statements their depositions before the Justice HMA committee and that can be treat taken as treated as a complaint and action has to be taken by the government but the government is uh yes that's why that's why the question of whether there's a patronage and whether there's influence because why is the government uh looking like it's dragging its feet when it comes to action in this case Dr nicool Patel has the state government the administration and the political class in general failed with in the Malayalam film industry definitely the state government failure is reflected when the woman working Committee in 2017 itself met the chief minister and then the himma committee was formed regarding the working conditions the environment what the women are facing in the industry now after the report has been come out and then it was not being Ted since last four years so again the question comes to the state government regarding the security and the safety of the women in the industry now once the women itself are complaining and then now after uh immense pressure and as well as the Congress leader Chana had asked so many times to the government and now due to the court intervention now when the report is sted and still the actions government is telling that we will not spare anyone so I think whatever happening in the country with respect to the woman right now the question is definitely towards the government okay it's towards the government uh but Mr Krishna Das has the government taken enough action because the government says the guilty will not be spared they say that they they are the ones who commission the HMA report and they're going to ensure that the guilty will be punished by politicize no see it is only an eyewash a seven member sit has been formed Yesterday by the government of Kerala but this is only an eyewash because now what they say is now the actresses have to come out again with the complaints what we say is is that uh see these actresses have given their depositions before the Hemma committee and now they are asked to again come up with complaints which will only traumatize them they have faced this hardship for long years they have given their grievances before the HMA committee and the government asks them you come again with your complaint right so the government is only interested in delaying okay government only interested in delaying Kevin Matthew that's a very important and critical point being made time in again by Mr Krishna Das if uh these women the actresses have already spoken to the commission members and what's the point of constituting a commission if you want them to again separately come out and give a statement or uh file a police complaint what was the whole point of forming this uh commission also you just said that you know at least uh it's coming to four now but again if no concrete action is taken if the government is seen to be delaying this case and dragging its feet what's the point what's the point of these things coming to for now see ma'am you have done understand this is a little uh because and yes the messaging and the language could be better I agree with messaging and the language from the government could have been better but yeah and it I I consider it's a bare minimum but at least the government is doing that and it's not easy Al so see it all started when an issue issue happened few years back s years back an actress was assulted in the car and that is where it started and yes uh this uh movie industry is a very male dominated industry and you know what this is there are practical difficulties and this is even in Hollywood the MEO movement it was initially slow and then it came out so it takes its natural time and yes I I completely conceive The Government Can Do Better okay the government can do better but Kevin Matthews uh you know like we've been mentioning not the first time that this has happened it happened back in 2018 as well now statements that have come in from the government saying we will assure strict action but there have been allegations before what was the action taken act dilip as well facing allegations continues in the film industry as well uh thank you for joining us with your point of view we'll have to leave it at that now this toce is completely different from the earlier taken by another state Minister Saji cherion initially he provided cover fire to the filmmaker we in fact are trying to highlight the discrepancy in the statement that have been made listening for so you heard what San said initially saying that action can be taken only after there is concrete evidence in the case saying uh how can we decide if a person is an offender or not there needs to be a police investigation if he's proven to have committed the offense only then can the government take action against him that was his initial reaction after outrage he goes on to say that the government is in support of the women saying the left government has always stood with women and we are the ones who formed the committee and we will take action against the government but this came after a lot of criticism over his uh previous stuns that was seen as a cover fire for those who are accused in fact we also heard Vina George Who responding to this said that the government will not protect the offenders the government has not tried to protect anyone nor will they do so government is not in a situation where anybody will be protected and then you had the minister first give a comment asking how can you just take action against someone we will have to interrogate investigate and then once there was outrage and the government faced Flack for it suddenly we saw a change in the stance the Kerala montry uh gave benefit of Doubt to Ranjit first despite Shri Lea Mitra Bengali actor opening up on how the D dor made her uncomfortable with his conductor charge denied by Ranjit so people who don't have any relation with anybody personal relation a ask out if here I name then to everybody would be unmasked ma'am do you have more people to name everywhere people like Ranjit he might be called a womanizer he hasn't hasn't sexually molested but he has touched me without my permission or he made me uncomfortable with it ma'am is this practice also there in Bengali film industry 100% 200% 1,000% not only in Bengal everywhere everywhere you think Bollywood uh actors directors actresses they get work just like that it's considered very normal it has been normalized by our Predators now we've also spoken to one of the victims in the case who has leveled allegations against sik and has also claimed to have had a troubling experience with actor r listenin that was the hardest face in my life fure somewhere near in future I'll definitely go maybe because all I want is that kind of assurance and reassurance and Val from the state friends maybe individuals individual support group not from the system I believe [Music] defitely somethinge already I think it started from the same person [Music] I have nothing to lose we will continue to get you more updates on this story for the moment we're sleeping into a short break