They have to be alert, tense, worried, every time there is a media report talking about 'an actress involved in an issue'. There may not be a mention of who this actress is, so everyone in the field would be looked at as a doubtful character. Their fears came true yet again when media reports came of a policeman being beaten up for visiting the house of 'an actress', in an act of moral policing in Kochi, on Thursday.
A TV actress is what the news said and the name of the woman got spread as Lakshmi. The woman whose house the policeman had visited came out and said she has never acted in a film or serial. But by then the harm was done. Another Lakshmi who is a television actress was dragged into the picture. Her photo was circulated through social media and whatsapp, as the woman involved.
“There are four or five Lakshmis acting in television and cinema. One of them was wrongly dragged into this only because she has the same name,” says Kishore Satya, actor and executive member of ATMA, Association of Television Media Artistes.
A few members of ATMA including him, general secretary Dinesh Panicker, vice president Kaladi Omana and others, called a press meet in Thiruvananthapuram to address this issue. “We just want to request the media to show some caution. They could call AMMA — Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes — or ATMA if they want to verify which actress was involved. But then the news came without any such verification and an innocent woman's reputation is tarnished,” Kishore says.
Like any other field — IT or banks or media — women in the acting field too deserved to be treated with respect. “We talk about women's security all the time. Television and film actresses too need this security. That's the protection we ask of the media. If they find an actor involved in a case, then they should publish the name clearly. If they say ‘one serial actress’, it could be anyone and everyone would be suspected.”
The actress whose picture had gone viral has given a complaint to the cyber police. But it doesn't end there, Kishore feels. “People who work in music albums and come into trouble are also identified as ‘television or film actresses’. You cannot just generalise everyone as a television and film actor. Please exercise caution when you tag someone like that,” Kishore says.
