Pressure mounts on Kerala filmmaker Ranjith to step down from govt post

Thiruvananthapuram: The justice Hema committee report on the sexual assaults faced by women in the Malayalam film industry is snowballing into a major political row in Kerala with pressure mounting on the government to act against filmmaker Ranjith who is holding a government post.

Ranjith, who is a left fellow traveller, holds the chairman post of Kerala Chalachitra Academy, a state government organisation that conducts the International Film Festival of Kerala. Bengali actress Sreelekha Mitra on Friday alleged that Ranjith touched her inappropriately while she came down for acting in his film Paleri Manikyam in 2009. She also said that she decided not to act in the film owing to the incident. However, Rajith told a section of media that the allegation was baseless.

Even as a section in the state government continued to back him, pressure mounted from the ruling left-front to oust him from the post and initiate a probe.

Cultural affairs minister Saji Cheriyan, who holds the cinema portfolio, maintained that it was inappropriate to initiate action against Ranjith without finding him guilty. The state government is said that legal action could be initiated against Ranjith only on the basis of a specific complaint by the Bengali actress.

Mitra expressed that Ranjith should at least tender an apology. She told the media that she can't afford to spend time or money to fight legally against the filmmaker.

However, CPI leader Annie Raja was among those who asked Ranjith to step down from the government post and face a probe. Opposition leader V D Satheesan of the Congress and BJP state president K Surendran also demanded that Ranjith should either step down or be removed. The Youth Congress staged a demonstration in front of a resort in Wayanad on Saturday where Ranjith was reportedly staying.

Meanwhile, Malayalam actor Revathy Sampath reiterated her earlier allegation that actor and Association of Malayalam Movie Artists general secretary Siddique sexually abused her in 2016. She had earlier raised the allegation in 2019 during the #MeToo campaign and Siddique had then denied it.