The Kerala government released the Justice Hema Committee report on Monday. The report has caused a major stir in the state. It highlights the serious discrimination and exploitation faced by women in the Malayalam film industry. Now, actress Parvathy Thiruvothu, who recently won Best Actress for her film Ullozhukku at the International Film Festival of Melbourne, has opened up about her thoughts on the Justice Hema Committee report. In an exclusive chat with NDTV's Abira Dhar, Parvathy explained the release of Justice Hema Committee report as a “bitter-sweet” achievement. She said, “The sense of achievement is extremely bitter-sweet for us, mainly because the first deposition happened sometime in 2018 and the report was submitted sometime in 2019. It took so many years for it to come out. The redacted version of it. In these years, we have had to really beg and grovel and fight. Allies were from the public and from media, who had to join this fight and say ‘Wait, why are you keeping it from us? Why is it not coming out?'”
Parvathy Thiruvothu also underlined how the report has been sensationalised. She said, “There was also a certain sensationalising on it. Whereas, [Justice] Hema Commission report is a study of malpractices in the film industry, which will help us (about) why was it formed and why was the report generated so that work towards forming better workplace culture, workplace practices that is government defined so that nobody would go against the law. Now, I think, sometimes is lost on people, when they think on the [Justice] Hema Commission. They are more focused on the sensationalising aspects of it. So, it is currently still a struggle for us to throw the focus back on to the picture and say, ‘No no no, let us put our mind and hearts to what the matter is at hand.'”
The actress also highlighted how the subject matter of the report is not about “happy things.” She expressed, “But at the same time the fact that it has come out, why I say it is bitter-sweet because most of us did go and depose it in the front of the committee. We have to speak up on so many things that otherwise in other interviews we have said and things that are under confidentiality. These are not happy things to read. These are not happy things to corroborate. And now, it being in an official document definitely brings more seriousness to it and we feel quite vindicated frankly. But, I would say that this is just the beginning.”
Parvathy Thiruvothu explained that the Justice Hema Committee report is not an “expose” on the Malayalam film industry. “And I would also like to underline, especially because I am speaking on this platform is that this is not an expose on the Malayalam film industry alone. This is the first time, this is being done in any film industry, where a government-appointed committee has done a study on it and a report has come out. What I believe is that, when this happens in Malayalam industry I am not ok with it going like, ‘Malayalam industry so rotten inside.' No, we are good inside, which is why we are fixing it. The places where you don't hear anything about, that's where we should be worried about,” she said.
Earlier, actress Ranjini challenged the publication of the Justice Hema Committee report in the Kerala High Court. She later demanded the establishment of an entertainment tribunal. Click here to read all about it.