Now, Telugu film industry women seek release of 2022 report on harassment

Hema Committee report: Leading women actors, producers, and directors of Telugu films are pushing the Telangana government to release a two-year-old report on sexual harassment in the industry, as the first step toward creating a safe working environment.

Leading women actors, producers, and directors of Telugu films are pushing the Telangana government to release a two-year-old report on sexual harassment in the industry, as the first step toward creating a safe working environment.

The Movie Artistes Association and the Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce are also learnt to be discussing how to address this issue.

The Voice of Women (VoW), a support group for women in the Telugu film industry, issued a statement on August 30 drawing parallels to the Hema Committee’s revelations of sexual exploitation in Malayalam cinema. The statement garnered attention when it was shared on social media by actor Samantha Ruth Prabhu, and others.

“We welcome the Hema Committee report and applaud the persistent efforts of the WCC [Women in Cinema Collective] in Kerala, which has laid the path to this moment. Taking a cue from the WCC, The Voice of Women was created in 2019. We hereby urge the Telangana government to publish the submitted sub-committee report on sexual harassment, which can help frame government and industry policies to establish a safe working environment for women in the Telugu film industry,” the statement said.

The 235-page Hema Committee report on the working conditions, discrimination and allegations of sexual exploitation in the Malayalam film industry has had a snowball effect. After the report was made public on August 19, several actresses came forward and shared their experiences. Since then, there have been discussions about the necessity for investigations into other language film industries.

A similar study was conducted on the Telugu film industry in the wake of actor Sri Reddy’s allegations in 2018 and the #MeToo movement. However, the report submitted to the Telangana government in June 2022 is yet to see the light of day.

In 2018, Ms. Sri Reddy had alleged sexual harassment and staged a protest outside the Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce, which made everyone sit up and take notice. However, she was soon shamed and banned by the Movie Artistes Association. Her allegations had, however, opened a can of worms about rampant sexual harassment in the industry and the issue became tough to brush under the carpet.