Late actor Tilakan's daughter levels allegations of harassment against prominent Malayalam actor

Thiruvananthapuram: The daughter of legendary Malayalam actor late Thilakan on Tuesday made a shocking disclosure that one of the prominent actors in the film industry had misbehaved with her after the demise of her father.

Sonia Thilakan said the actor had called her to his room saying he wanted to apologise for what he had done to her father and later sent her objectionable messages years ago.

Addressing reporters here, the woman was, however, reluctant to divulge the name of the actor.

She said there is a “power group” that has been controlling the Malayalam film industry and AMMA, the actor’s outfit, for a long time.

“My father was ousted from the association for being vocal about the internal issues there. The same power group was behind this,” Sonia said.

The woman came up with the disclosure a day after the Justice Hema Committee report, which exposed the shocking harassment and sexual exploitation faced by women in the Malayalam film industry, triggered a storm in Kerala.

The expert panel report also has references to the ill-treatment faced by Thilakan, who had even faced a lifetime ban from the AMMA.

Sonia Thilakan said the actor had addressed her affectionately, but later dropped messages with wrong intent.

The messages were proof of his wrong intention, she said adding that she had been seeing him since her childhood.

When reporters asked her to name the actor, she said she would reveal it at an appropriate time.

“I made this revelation now in solidarity with the women who gave statements before the Hema Committee. If an outsider like me had suffered, imagine what would be the extent of suffering of those working in the industry.”Sonia said.

The much-awaited report, released on Monday, has recorded explosive accounts of harassment, exploitation and ill-treatment of female professionals in the film industry and alleged that a “criminal gang” was controlling the industry where unyielding women are squeezed out.

The Kerala government constituted the panel after the 2017 actress assault case involving actor Dileep to study issues of sexual harassment and gender inequality in Malayalam cinema.