THEATRE OF OUTRAGE

A shocking report on abuse and exploitation in Malayalam cinema has unleashed a revolution for gender justice. Will the heroic struggle, led by a group of courageous women, succeed?

- NIRMAL JOVIAL

Devaki Bhaagi, 36, still remembers the day when her dream of entering the magical world of cinema turned into a nightmare.

She was 12 when she went to Mananthavady, a quaint town in Kerala’s Wayanad district, with her father. “Wayanad was far removed from the glitter and glamour of the movie world,” recalled Bhaagi. “One of my father’s acquaintances, a telefilm actor, had told us that a filmmaker and his crew were at a hotel in Mananthavady to audition teenagers for their film Vacation.”

The filmmaker was K.K. Haridas, who had directed family entertainers in the 1990s. “As my father and the filmmaker talked in the hotel room, I grew bored and wandered out to the balcony,” she recalled. “An assistant director came and started talking to me. Then he grabbed my hand and pulled me to a room, offering me a gift. The grip tightened as we neared the door, and I panicked.

‘I don’t want any gift!’ I cried out. ‘Don’t worry, girl,’ he said, and tried to push me into the room. I screamed and grabbed a part of the door, and his grip loosened. I escaped and ran back to my father, who was still talking to the filmmaker, and sat beside him silently. I told him what happened as we left the hotel.”

Bhaagi’s father, a teacher, shook with rage as he listened. “He confronted a photographer, who was part of the film crew, and asked, ‘What is happening here? That man dared to misbehave with my little girl!’ The photographer said, ‘Mashe (sir), please take her and leave this place as soon as possible. If I talk about things that are happening here, they would just throw me out.’ We left the place immediately,” said Bhaagi. “Throughout the journey home, my father held my hand.”