Justice Hema Committee Report released hours after Kerala High Court rejects plea By Actress Ranjni

The Justice Hema Committee Report has been made public hours after the Kerala High Court rejected a plea by actress Ranjni to halt the release of the report citing privacy concerns.

The High Court however allowed the actress to file a fresh plea but it could not be heard in time and the report was handed to various journalists who had sought a copy of the same.

The Justice Hema Committee was instituted to look into the working conditions of women in the Malayalam film industry.

The Justice Hema Committee Report made shocking revelations and stated that the actresses in the Malayalam Film industry are forced to make “compromises” and “adjustments”. In other words the report implied that actresses of the Malayalam Film Industry were forced to make themselves available for sex on demand.

The report quoted women in the film industry who alleged that harassment started from the very beginning.

The report cites a number of witnesses who were examined by the committee who stated that the production controller or whoever gives an offer for a role in cinema approaches the aspiring actress or when the actress approaches for a role, she is forced to make “adjustments” and “compromise” . “Adjustments” and “compromise” are two terms which are very familiar among women in the Malayalam film industry and they are asked to make themselves available for sex on demand.

The Kerala High Court rejected a plea by actress Ranjni to halt the release of the report and a Bench of Acting Chief Justice A Muhamed Mustaque and Justice S Manu ruled that the actress must file a writ petition instead of an appeal. The Judge also observed that since the actress was not a party to the case in which the single judge order was passed and the single judge order was against a single person and not on legal issues against the world at large.

The report also deplored the poor working conditions and the women in the industry being denied basic human rights, such as access to toilets and changing rooms, even on sets. Women were forced to seek secluded spots to change or use the bathroom during outdoor shoots, with no access to water or basic facilities.

The Justice K Hema Committee was set up by the Kerala State Government in 2017 in response to a petition filed by ‘Women in Cinema Collective’ to study the issues faced by women in the film industry. The report was submitted in 2019. After a plea under the Right to Information Act (RTI Act) was filed the State Information Commission (SIC) was allowed to publicly release the report after redacting personal information.

The Hema Committee was set up immediately after the 2017 sexual assault case involving an actor and submitted its findings to the chief Minister on December 31, 2019.

On February 17, 2017, an actress was abducted and sexually assaulted in a moving car near Kochi, Kerala. Five men abducted her and filmed the entire assault. Two hours after the assault the actress sought refuge at actor-director Lal’s house. Later a case was filed with police and the actress identified Pulsar Suni as one of the harassers. The investigations revealed that Actor Dileep was the mastermind in the actress assault case.

The actor was married to Manju Warrier from 1998 to 2015. In 2015, Dileep and Manju Warrier got divorced. The rape victim and Manju Warrier were close friends and she had told Manju about Dileep’s affair with actress Kavya Madhavan. She also took Manju’s side in the messy divorce proceedings. Dileep planned the entire assault to settle scores with the survivor and wanted to film the assault so he could blackmail her

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