Mollywood #Metoo: Actress Sowmya accuses Tamil director of heinous sexual assault, rape at start of film career

In the wake of the Justice Hema Committee report that has taken the Malayalam film industry by storm, several female actors and junior artists have come forward to name the alleged preparators of sexual assaults.

Yet another actress Sowmya has made allegations of sexual harassment and rape against a Tamil director.

She has accused the director of mental, physical, and sexual assault - including the insertion of a rod into her genitals, NDTV reported. However, Sowmya refused to reveal the director’s name, and the report said she would disclose the man's identity to the special police team.

According to the NDTV report, the director, along with his wife, approached Sowmya when she was 18 years old and inflicted mental torture by claiming her as his “daughter”.

The Kerala government had formed a special police team to probe multiple cases of alleged sexual assault in Mollywood.

“I was 18 and in my first year of college... I came from a very sheltered background and my parents knew nothing about movies. This opportunity (to act in a Tamil film) came through my college theatre contact. As a child I was enamoured by the actor Revathy, who lived near my house at that time...I was in a fantasy world. So I went for a screen test with this couple...,” Sowmya told NDTV in an interview.

“I was a child; I didn't know much,” she added.

The actor also told her family, “... I said I wasn't comfortable with the man. I said this at my first meeting.”

But her family had been arm-twisted into allowing her to act, she claimed, adding the director told her father they had spent large amounts of money on her screen test.

Further, she said: “During the first outdoor shoots he didn't speak to me. The agreement was that his wife would be the director but that was on paper... in reality he was directing the whole movie.”

“And so I was under his control... and he gave me the 'angry silent treatment” like many men are used to doing, she added.

“One fine day, when his wife wasn't around, this man, while calling me his daughter, kissed me. I completely froze. I was so desperate to tell my friends but couldn't... I was ashamed, thinking I had done something wrong and that I was obligated to be nice to this man...,” Sowmya said. “So I continued going for practice, for dance rehearsals... every day I went back and gradually, step by step, this man completely used my body to his advantage. At some point he forced himself on me... so he raped me. This went on for close to a year while I was in college.”

She also said: “A co-star who sexually abused me has now been named in the Hema Committee report.”