Kerala MP and actor Innocent gave a statement on the casting couch, amid an interaction, when he addressed the topic of the casting couch, he stated that the phenomenon no more exists in the industry and only occurs due to ‘bad women’.
He said, “The Malayalam film industry is clean now and no such thing as casting couch exists in the industry… It is not like the yesteryear. The situation today is such that if there is any bad behaviour towards any women, the media will know immediately,” he said, adding: “But if the woman is bad, maybe they will go to bed.”
Clearly, this made a major chaos and Women In Cinema Collective (WCC), a group, took to social networking sites to express their disappointment. Their Facebook page post read, “New artists face several forms of sexual abuse while entering the film industry. Even our colleagues like Parvathy and Lakshmi Rai, have spoken about casting couch openly… We cannot accept the statement that the film industry is free from all kinds of sexual exploitation and there should be cautiousness in making statements in public.”
State president of Mahila Congress, Bindu Krishna, additionally come to Innocent’s comment by saying, Bindu Krishna, “Through this statement, he has proved that he does not have any respect and his position as AMMA president is not tenable. AMMA should be disbanded. For that, all those who have self-respect should come forward.”
The veteran actor is a Member of the Parliament as well as also elected President of Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA) – an association that incorporates all significant film artist, including the superstars from Kerala.
So after the responses his quote got, he took to his Facebook page to clear up. He posted, “Some of my comments to the media have been misinterpreted and published in a way that I did not intend. What I intended to say was that the environment for women to work in the film industry has become more women-friendly than before. AMMA will continue to work against all anti-women practices in the industry.”
Add Comment