Hema Committee report ‘heartbreaking, because it is familiar’: Swara Bhasker

Mumbai: Reacting to Hema Committee report, actress Swara Bhasker termed the sexual assaults against women in Malayalam movies “heartbreaking because it is familiar”.

The report brought to fore accounts of powerful group of male actors, producers and directors making demands of sexual favours from women in the industry.

Swara Bhasker published a note on Instagram captioning it “I’ve just got down to reading the findings of the redacted Hema Committee Report and the findings are heartbreaking… and familiar! Here are some thoughts..#sexualharassment #genderviolence #hemacommitteereport.”

Praising the women in the industry for speaking up, she wrote: “I finally got around to reading about the findings of the Hema Committee Report. Before anything else, a big big hug and gratitude to the brave women of the Women In Cinema Collective (WCC) who have consistently raised their voice against sexual harassment and violence, who demanded that an expert committee examine the working conditions of women in their industry and suggest solutions, who testified before the Hema Committee, who’ve held the hands of and provided solace to each other and to all women who have suffered sexual harassment and violence in the industry. You are heroes and you are doing the work that people in positions of greater power ought to have done already. Respect and solidarity with you!”

Adding further she reportedly wrote: “It has been heartbreaking to read the findings of the committee. More heartbreaking because it is familiar. Maybe not every detail and not every nitty gritty but the larger picture of what the women have testified to is all too familiar. Showbiz is and always has been a male-centric industry, a patriarchal power set-up. It’s also deeply perception-sensitive and risk-averse. Every day of production – shoot days but also pre and post-production days – are days when the meter is running and money is being spent. No one likes a disruption. Even if the disruptor has raised her voice for what is ethically correct. It’s so much more convenient and financially practical to just carry on.”

Calling the showbiz not just patriarchal, she said it is also having a feudal character with successful actors and producers being elevated to the status of demi-gods, adding she said ‘If they do something unsavoury, the norm for everyone around is to look away.’

‘If someone makes too much noise and doesn’t let an issue drop, label them ‘trouble-makers’ and let them bear the brunt of their overenthusiastic conscience. Silence is the convention. Silence is appreciated. Silence is practical and silence is rewarded,’ she added.

Swara said that ‘predatory atmosphere’ in showbiz is ‘ normalised’, and ‘This happens everywhere in the world.’

Concluding her note, she questioned other language film industries saying until people opens up “existing abuses of power will continue to be borne by those who are vulnerable”.