Southern Lights | Release report on women’s safety in Telugu film industry, demand actors, activists

Two years after a report on women’s safety in the Telugu film industry (TFI) was submitted to it, the Telangana government has yet to make it public. The report was submitted to the then-chief secretary Somesh Kumar in 2022, women activists who were part of the committee told HT. Despite several Telugu film actors demanding the report's release after the Malayalam film industry’s Justice Hema Committee report, the TS state government has taken no action thus far.Officials and activists, who have been tracking the report but asked not to be named, said that the current information and public relations commissioner under whose charge the report is placed has sought the chief secretary’s opinion on its release. Given the flood and devastation in several parts of Telangana, the government fears that an ill-timed release could further dent the state’s image.“All committee members met regularly over eight months at the Telangana State Film Development Council office, which acted as the coordinating agency between the state and sub-committee. The members interviewed actors, producers, directors, and other technical staff as well,” said a senior official of the TSFDC who did not wish to be named. The current I&PR Commissioner also heads the TSFDC.The sub-committee comprising nearly two dozen members from the Telangana government, female police officers, the film industry, activists, and the state women’s commission was formed at the behest of the Telangana High Court.Similar to incidents in the Malayalam film industry that triggered the formation of the Hema Committee, the Telangana state government constituted a committee in 2019 after Sri Reddy, an actress, staged a protest in front of the Movie Makers Association (MAA) office in 2019. She psrotested against unfair trade practices in the TFI also levelling allegations of casting couch against many senior directors and producers.After MAA failed to take action, the actress threatened to stage a semi-clad protest before the then chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s office. Many female activists and feminists who joined the protest filed petitions in the high court and an order was passed to constitute a special sub-committee. In the same year, many female artists in the Telugu Film Industry, such as director Nandini Reddy, Samantha, and others formed the Voice of Women forum to support the causes of women in the TFI.“We made a representation to Talasani Srinivas Yadav who was then minister for cinematography. He promised to look into the issue but nothing came of it. We even gave the film industry a list of demands that included clearing dues to female artists who played junior roles in movies. While the producers agreed to it, we did not receive an appropriate response on other concerns raised,” said V Sandhya, National Convenor of the Progressive Organisation of Women (POW).In the wake of the Justice Hema report, Sandhya and other women activists have decided to give the government a deadline by which it needs to release the report. “There were IAS officers who were part of the committee. It still requires us activists to force such a report to be made public!” Sandhya said.Gopal Menon, a human rights activist and filmmaker, said not in every state, do women need to go through the circuitous and painful process of protesting for basic rights. With veteran actresses such as Revathy and Radhika voicing their unpleasant experiences in public, Menon said the issue is not confined to the Malayalam movie industry alone. “Women, in each state where there is a prominent (film) industry, do not have to go through the harrowing experience of protesting for basic human rights. If the Telangana government has also kept the report under wraps, then there is a serious issue. Bollywood too should take cognisance of this and constitute an internal committee to check if there has been harassment of female artists,” he said.Last week, after actress Samantha Ruth Prabhu posted on one of her social media pages urging the Telangana government to make the report public, Voice of Women too made a similar request. However, neither the government nor any of the sub-committee members have made any statements about its release.Deepika Amirapu is a freelance journalist based in Hyderabad. Each week, Southern Lights examines the big story from one of the five states of South India.