An emergency meeting of the monitoring committee led by the Kerala Film Chamber of Commerce (KFCC) to handle complaints related to workplace harassment of women in the Malayalam film industry will be held here on Monday (April 21, 2025) to decide on the allegations of suspected drug use and misbehaviour raised by actor Vincy Aloshious against her co-star Shine Tom Chacko on a film set.
The issue snowballed into a controversy after Ms. Aloshious had in a video posted on her social media pages accused a male co-star of misbehaving with her after approaching her on the pretext of helping her.
She had filed a complaint before the KFCC, Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes (AMMA) and the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) of the movie. Though she did not divulge the identity of her co-star and the name of the movie, a suspected leak of her complaint had revealed that she had raised the complaints of misbehaviour and suspected drug use against Mr. Chacko on the location of the movie Soothravakyam.
Saji Nanthiyattu, general secretary of KFCC, said on Friday that the emergency meeting of the 29-member monitoring committee will be held at 3 p.m on April 21 to discuss the complaint lodged by the actor.
The committee, he said, was formed based on the recommendation of the Kerala State Women’s Commission after the Kerala High Court directed the film production houses to form an internal complaints committee as per the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 (PoSH Act). The court had issued the directive based on a petition filed by the Women in Cinema Collective.
The committee included 27 members representing various film bodies and two members of the Kerala State Women’s Commission. Mr. Nanthiyattu said that stringent action will be initiated against complaints of drug abuse and harassment on film locations.
AMMA begins probe
The three-member committee appointed by the ad-hoc committee of the AMMA to probe the complaint lodged by the actor will sent a notice to Mr. Chacko seeking his response to the allegations. The committee, comprising Sarayu Mohan, Ansiba Hassan, and Vinu Mohan, has sought the details of the incident from those associated with the movie Soothravakyam.
Though Ms. Aloshious is not a member of the actors’ body, she was told by the film bodies to file the complaint before it as Mr. Chacko is its member. The ad-hoc committee has not set a time-frame for the three-member committee to submit its report, it is learnt.
Published – April 18, 2025 02:59 pm IST