Hema report fallout: ’90s actor accuses Tamil director of using her as ‘sex slave’

As the allegations of sexual assault and abuse in the wake of the Justice K Hema Committee report continue to rock the Malayalam film industry, an actress who had worked in a few Tamil and Malayalam films in the 1990s has come forward with horrifying charges against a Tamil director.

The actress, whose real name is Sujatha and who worked under the screen name of Sowmya, has accused this director of using her as a “sex slave” and subjecting her to unspeakable sexual torture such as inserting a rod in her private parts for “entertainment”.

A year of abuse

In two media interviews, she has detailed the torture she faced for about a year by this man, whose name she has not disclosed but has promised to reveal to the special police team formed by the Kerala government to probe the multiple allegations of sexual abuse made following the publishing of the Hema Committee report.

Sowmya said she was approached by this man and his director wife when she was merely 18. Her parents had nothing to do with the film industry and she met them through her college theatre contact. Like a lot of teenagers, she was enamoured by the glittery entertainment world and was a fan of the actress Revathi who lived nearby.

Man faced rape charge from daughter

According to Sowmya, she was taken for a screen test by the couple who wanted her as the lead in their Tamil film. She was apparently told that the wife would direct the film though that later turned out to be only on paper. Her family was against her acting in films and they were reportedly told by the couple that they had spent a lot of money on her screen test and now she could not back out.

By that time, she already knew she was not comfortable with the man, she said. Yet, she went ahead because she felt “obligated” to act in the film, she told NDTV. After a few days, the couple reportedly took her in as their “daughter”. Shockingly, their own daughter had reportedly left, accusing her father of rape. But Sowmya was allegedly told by the couple that she was lying.

Fear of shame

Initially she was treated well by the couple but one fine day, when the wife was away, the director allegedly sexually assaulted her while calling her his “daughter” all the while. It allegedly started with a kiss and then he went on to rape her repeatedly for almost a year. The man allegedly even told her that he wanted a child with her.

The actress said she could not bring herself to talk to her friends and family about this because of her sense of shame and guilt. She had fought with her parents to live with this director couple and she did not want to bring any “shame” on her family by bringing these details to light, she said.

A world of “filth and abuse”

“It took 30 years for me to heal and recover from this sense of shame,” she told NDTV. “I encourage survivors to report all such abuse,” she added. She also told Republic that “three decades is not enough” to heal from such an incident.

Sowmya told Republic that she left the film industry after doing a handful of Tamil and Malayalam films due to “filth and abuse”. She narrated how her male colleagues would hug her “tight” during song sequences, which made her feel uncomfortable.

She also said filmmakers would not keep her into the loop about what was about to happen during the take. She shared an incident with Republic where the villain spat betel juice on her face without the scene being discussed with her. “Secretly, the men had decided it,” she said.