Malayalam actress Parvathy has reportedly filed a police complaint after the trolling and bullying escalated on social media, spearheaded by fans of actor Mammootty who did not take her comment on his film Kasaba too lightly. Speaking to NDTV, the actress said that the issue is not just about her anymore but about silencing a woman who speaks up.
“This is now much bigger than me. It’s not about me only. It’s about how women are treated when they respectfully put forward a different opinion. We’ve been silenced for years. I have been in this industry for eleven years and I must thank the fans for their support,” she said.
Early this month, speaking at the Women in Cinema Collective at the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK), Parvathy spoke about a particular film she had the ‘bad luck’ of watching. She was referring to Kasaba, that released last year, where the superstar had uttered several misogynistic dialogues and rape threats.
“With all respect to the makers, the film disappointed me, as it featured a great actor spitting totally misogynistic dialogues. A lot of people feel cinema reflects life and society, so when a superstar mouths such a dialogue, people might think it’s sexy and cool,” Parvathy was quoted as saying.
Several fans of Mammootty took to tweeting abuses at her, questioning her for speaking ‘ill’ of their favourite star. The cyber-bullying has so far escalated to rape threats, acid attack, questioning her morals, character assassination, and so on. Singer Chinmayi Sripada, who faced a similar incident few years ago, came to the actress’ defence, admitting that it isn’t easy but the perpetrators deserve strict action.
@parvatweets well done with the police complaint. High time the harassers are unmasked. A group of Tamil tweeters did the same – threaten I ll go out of work some years ago and launched a campaign that I said ‘fishermen can die coz they are meat eaters’.
— Chinmayi Sripaada (@Chinmayi) December 26, 2017
2 guys went to jail. And the case is in Madras HC. One of the men was a clerk at a collectorate, the other at NIFT, no less! Most of these swines will use anything from casteist slurs, acid attack and rape threats and perpetuate misogyny. Keep it up. It isnt easy though 🙂
— Chinmayi Sripaada (@Chinmayi) December 26, 2017
Read: Would A Three-Time National Award-Winning Actor Mammootty Defend An Abysmal Film Like Kasaba?
