Malayalam actress Sowmya: 'Tamil director raped me at 18, groomed to be sex slave'

CHENNAI: 90s Malayalam actress Sujatha, known by her screen name Sowmya, has accused a Tamil film director of severe mental, physical, and sexual abuse, including the insertion of a rod into her genitals. This is the latest in a series of allegations against film personalities that have come up in the wake of the explosive findings of the Justice Hema Committee report.

In a recent interview with NDTV, Sowmya recounted her harrowing experience of being 'groomed as a sex slave' by a director and how he and his wife were 'nice' to her, giving good food and milkshakes. The director had also expressed a desire to have a child with her, she said.

"I was 18 years old and in my first year of college. My parents knew nothing about cinema. I got an opportunity to act in a Tamil film. At that time, I was mesmerised by actress Revathy who lived near my house... So I went for a screen test with this couple...After I got selected, during the first outdoor shoots, he didn't speak to me. The agreement was that his wife would be the director but that was on paper... in reality, he was directing the whole movie.

"And so I was completely under the director's control... and he gave me the 'angry silent treatment' like a lot of men are used to doing... One day when the director's wife was not at home, while calling me his 'daughter', he kissed me. I was frozen. He raped me many times. This happened for more than a year. I had been the director's sex slave. He told me that he wanted to have a child with me. It took 30 years to heal and overcome this shame," the actress narrated.

Sowmya also revealed that one day the filmmaker even inserted a rod into her genitals as a form of “entertainment", and that his own daughter had left accusing him of rape. Following the "filth and abuse", she left the industry after doing a few Tamil and Malayalam movies.

The actress has withheld the accused's name, she said she would soon reveal it to the special investigation team (SIT) set up by the Kerala government to probe sexual assault cases in the film industry. She also claimed in the interview that a co-star "who sexually abused me has now been named in the Hema Committee report.”

The Malayalam film industry has been in the middle of a powerful #MeToo movement ever since the release of the Justice Hema Committee report after a long delay last month, revealing rampant sexual exploitation of women in the film world.

Kerala Police have so far registered FIRs against 11 people, including nine from the film industry, based on complaints lodged by actresses.Those who are in the dock include actor-turned-CPI(M) legislator Mukesh Madhavan, Siddique, Jayasurya, Edavela Babu, Maniyanpilla Raju, directors Ranjith and VK Prakash, and production executives Vichu and Noble.By now those who have received relief from the court include Mukesh, Renjith and Raju.

(With PTI inputs)