Ere Gowda, a prominent Kannada screenwriter, has been accused of sexual assault and misconduct. Ekta M shared the horrifying ordeal faced by her friend, who has chosen to remain anonymous, on her social media account recently. Following this, the Dharamshala International Film Festival’s organisers have announced that they will not screen Gowda’s directorial – Balekempa, at their fest this year. The film was scheduled to be screened at the festival in November this year.
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The woman accusing Gowda of assault says that she contacted Gowda after watching Thithi. She writes that she wanted a mentor in the film industry after developing an affinity of cinema in the last year of her Master’s course. She met Gowda and interacted with him about his experiences filming Thithi. While sharing stories about his difficult childhood during their second meeting in Sankey Tank, Bangalore, Gowda is said to have expressed that he was sexually attracted to the woman.
On a certain occasion, Ere expressed that he felt sexually attracted to me. I came up with a few excuses and went back home. I wasn’t sure if I should continue meeting him. Then I talked with a few friends. I talked to myself. I thought that maybe I shouldn’t run away just because someone is attracted to me. I decided to talk this out with him. We met. I told him clearly that I am looking for a mentor. I am looking for somebody to learn from. I am not interested in any romantic ventures in my life at the moment. He seemed to get me perfectly well.
After some time, Gowda invited the victim on a trip to Byadarahalli, where he filming Balekempa. Gowda said that he would be travelling to the village to finish sound recording work on the movie. Gowda also requested the victim’s help in creating an application for TED talk event.
It is during this trip that Gowda is accused of committing a sexual act in front of the victim and also repeatedly tried to coerce her into having sex with him.
Ere came back and lay down beside me. He came near me and tried to kiss. I told him that I am not interested and pushed him away. That was the start of it. He would put his hand on my chest. I would push it away. The hand would come back. When I look back now, I know that if I had texted my friend and asked him to come, he would have come. But at that moment, I was petrified. Ere was tall and much stronger than me. I did not want to piss him off for I knew that I wouldn’t be able to fight him. My body had gone into survival mode. I knew that I just want to get through this one night. And so it went on. He would try to remove my bra. I would try to push him off. He kept coming back.
The victim says that Ere repeatedly called her after this incident. When she did not respond, he called her family. This forced her to confront Ere and tell him that he needn’t be worried that she would disclose the incident.
I told him that if he is worried that I will talk about this incident then he needn’t sweat. His tone changed completely. He told me that nobody would believe me even if I spoke out. I understood that I had hit a nerve. I cut the call and blocked him everywhere.
While the victims friends urged her to write about her ordeal, she did not do so immediately. She needed some time to process and writes that she did not want to be known for this incident. She wanted to be known for her work.
Ere is a screenwriter. He is smart enough to get into somebody else’s shoes and speak from their mouths. So he knew what I was going through when he pushed me down to masturbate on me. He made a choice. At that moment he knew he was the one in power and he chose to abuse that power. I have a feeling that when his film gets selected for gender equality awards, he just sits back and gloats. I am not sure of how many more accolades we need to shower on this.
At the time of publication, Ere Gowda and his spokesperson were not available for comment. This article will be updated when they respond to our queries.
