Actor Kamal Hassan has ended his silence on the ongoing #MeToo campaign that has raked up a storm in the Tamil film industry and said that inquiries were necessary before jumping to conclusions.
Though Sri Reddy had come out earlier this year with allegations of casting couch widely prevalent in the industry, it was only after singer Chinmayi Sripada came out with claims of sexual harassment by Vairamuthu that the #MeToo movement in Tamil film industry finally gained traction. Singer Sindhuja Ramprasad too backed Chinmayi and levelled sexual harassment claims against Vairamuthu, forcing him to come out with a statement. More prominent names like Susi Ganeshan and Radha Ravi have sprung up ever since.
Barring a few like Sidhharth and Vishal, men from the industry have not spoken about the issue. But now Kamal Haasan has broken his silence.
According to India Today, the actor said: “Let them inquire into it (allegations), inquiry is the best way to throw light on the issue. We can’t suddenly jump into supporting any one side. It should be done fairly.”
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Kamal has refused to side with any parties. While on the one side Siddharth who has taken a pro-women stance and advocated that the benefit of doubt should lie with women in such cases, the industry has also seen people like P.T. Selvakumar who came to Vairamuthu’s defence saying “Opening up an issue after 15 years gives rise to the doubt that there may be some political motive in defaming him. If this is encouraged, then women everywhere will point to their fathers, brothers, cousins and so on.”
Meanwhile, Vishal, the president of the Tamil Film Producers Council, said that his organisation had decided to set up a committee to look into the sexual harassment faced by women in the industry.