Singer Chinmayi Sripada on Tuesday took to Twitter to share an account of sexual harassment by lyricist Vairamuthu, adding to the number of cases of #MeToo movement in the Tamil film industry against the lyricist.
Chinmayi shared a screenshot of her conversation with an anonymous person.
In her conversation, the anonymous person wrote: “I’ve been meaning to share this incident with you every since I saw your metoo movement against Vairamuthu. I would love to share my name, but I’m having restrictions from my inlaws. So pls dont use my name. And I can be your girl 17.
“#17 It took her 2 years to open up to me because her family doesn’t support. Have known her for years. And of course, does it even matter to the peeps of this society?” Chinmayi wrote.
“I was in college when I attended a book release and when I took vairamuthus autograph he signed the book with his number. I was too you g and ignored it. A little later I started VJing in a popular tamil channel is when Vairamuthu met me, and asked for my number again again me being naive gave it without thinking twice. The kind of harassment and calls k jsd to get from him was unbelievable, I was taken by shock with his intentions… he kept inviting me to some place near mount road, I use to ignore it. But then calls never stopped it went to a peak of 50 to 60 calls a on hour. He called me the angel he used to see in his dreams.
Finally I had to get my media bosses involved to talk to his wife and shut him up.(sic),” the girl wrote.
Almost 2 years since the second wave of the #MeToo movement.
#17
It took her 2 years to open up to me because her family doesn’t support. Have known her for years.
And of course, does it even matter to the peeps of this society? pic.twitter.com/65sXyqUMK3
— Chinmayi Sripaada (@Chinmayi) October 13, 2020
In the #MeToo movement, that has stirred controversies after many of the industry’s big names were called out, several women have accused Vairamuthu of sexually harassing them.
The post comes two years after Chinmayi called out Vairamuthu for sexually harassing her. On October 9, 2018, Chinmayi accused Vairamuthu of sexually harassing her in a Twitter thread. “Vairamuthi sir, you KNOW what you did. With due respect your #Timesup. I don’t care if I ever sing or dub in this industry ever. This is my story. And this is the truth,” she had written.
Chinmayi has since been actively participating in bringing out sexual harassment cases into the limelight and naming alleged offenders.
