Men of Kollywood brazen it out
As #MeToo charges are swirling around.
The men of Kollywood seem to be from another planet. The two matinee idols may have been somewhat more sympathetic of the women’s cause in the #MeToo movement. Kamal Haasan supported it while Rajini was for it while qualifying it by saying he was afraid of it being misused. But the actors accused of predatory behavior have shown no compunction in addressing the issue with threats to sue the accusers.
The lyricist Vairamuthu was the first to on the warpath against his accusers, defiantly threatening them with legal action. He hardly acknowledged that there was a problem until it snowballed into an issue. People have been more critical of him in the belief that he was using his political heft to browbeat anyone coming up with charges of sexual harassment against him.
The latest to say that the charges against Vairamuthu were believable is AR Rahman’s sister Reihana who revealed she had also heard about sexual harassment complaints against Vairamuthu in the past. She told a Tamil television channel “It’s an open secret.” She also revealed that her brother heard about it and asked her – “Is this news true?”. It is also rumoured that Vairamuthu may have used Rahman’s name to trap women singers.
With charges coming from different sources and being amplified by the #MeToo movement, some in the entertainment industry have accepted that there may be something to the charges and even apologised. A comedy show was wound up because of the allegations and actors, directors and personalities are being dropped from shows even as some of them are fighting the accusers legally or defending themselves in the media.
Only a few around the country have been as defiantly callous about it as Kolywood stars. One of them, Radha Ravi, even said that those making the accusations should be kicked out of the industry. The media seemed to get extra hard in going at Chinmayi as she addressed them along with Lakshmy Ramakrishnan. The scenes from that media event in which Chinmayi had to plead with folded hands to stop the inquisition went viral and anger understandably built up some more against Vairamuthu as well as the TV media.
While one journalist wished to know if Tamil TV was taking it seriously enough to confront Vairamuthu as much as they did Chinamyi, the reactions were purple. A Twitterati thought that the TN media is “mostly of Dravidian ideologists and half-baked street thugs who are just brainwashed by cinema and separatists.” Another one thought Tamil TV “pounces only on those who are honest and soft and cringe before the corrupt, bad and dishonest but mighty”.
A grilling of Vairamuthu on TV was recommended by some Twitterati but it is doubtful if the star would emerge to take this on. It seems to suit him to stay put after throwing a legal challenge to his accusers. Another one to follow suit was the actor Thiagarajan who has been accused by a photographer of harassment.
The Nadigar Sangam’s three-women committee panel to handle any future cases of harassment and deal with them promptly is the only silver lining to emerge from the #MeToo effect on Kollywood.