Yes, the casting couch culture exists in the Malayalam film industry, says Geeta Poduval, a former movie & TV actor
By B N KUMAR
NAVI MUMBAI: “I gave him one tight slap,” recalled former union government officer and an ex-Malayam movie and TV actor Geeta Poduval, who resisted the casting couch culture in the film industry.
Shattering her silence, Poduval narrated the “dark side of the glittering film industry” in an exclusive interview to YouTube channel The CONNECT TV.
“Yes the casting couch culture exists in the Malayalam film industry,” she said and declared that “I can confirm that the Hema Committee report is true”.
But her encounters with evil men began during her stint with the Comptroller General of India (CAG) as a senior audit officer. She joined as a lower division clerk in 1992 and rose to become an officer having cleared all departmental examinations. She had a brilliant career, having even handled a UN assignment till her senior began to harass her.
During one of the official trips to Pune in 2012, this officer had called her to his hotel room on the pretext of discussion for the next day’s presentation. “As I showed him the file, he threw the papers aside and tried to physically pull her, asking her to join him to enjoy. There was a liquor bottle on his table, she recalled.
“My complaints to the higherups did not make an iota of difference,” she said and disclosed that she had to seek voluntary retirement in 2014.
She got into hosting shows and it was then that someone referred her to a movie maker.
Poduval got an offer for a role in Malayalam movie Kandethal (Revelation) and it was a highly professional and satisfying experience. But the next movie had troubles in store which she could not visualise.
Asserting that she is not a feminist, she decided to speak out now so that many girls aspiring to join the film industry would not fall into the trap of filmmakers and actors who make sexual advancements.
“And those who don’t fall in line get completely sidelined and gradually disappear in oblivion. Many may not speak, out of fear or ignorance…or advised by senior ladies to compromise or adjust in the interest of their glamorous career,” Poduval said.
She explained that one of her junior artists had a “terrible experience” at Muscat where they had gone for a shoot in 2014, “She had someone knocking her door past midnight. She was terrorised as the knocks became a bug bang,” Poduval said. When the victim complained, she was packed off back to India.
“The producer of the film knocked on my door late in the night in a drunken state and started talking nonsense. I kept the door open, stood there only and somehow persuaded him to get out,” she narrated.
A third mischief happened with her when she was introduced to a top Malayalam actor whom she treated like her idol. He called her to Kochi to spend a few days with her, she said. “I stopped talking to him after that having realised that it was his style to cajole girls, and sexually abuse them,” Poduval said.
“Girls remain in the industry and move up if they yes, otherwise you are out,” she alleged explaining the “dark side of the film industry”.
She did not want to name the actor but said “enough to tell you that he figures in the ongoing controversy”.
“I am happy that the dirt is all now coming out and actions are being taken. I myself have faced advances from five big names from the industry but I had the guts to say NO at the cost of leaving the industry,” Poduval said in her Facebook post.
Poduval, who acted in Malayalam serial Crime Branch, also had a tough time with the TV industry. Her cheque, ironically for her lead role as a no-nonsense lady police officer, bounced and she did not get payment till date from the producer.
Poduwal, after all these bad experiences, started an NGO called Drzyashakti trust to promote talent among the Divyangs and has done many shows starring them.
Just a couple of days a man telephoned her and spoke in filthy language with her. She immediately filed an FIR with the police.
A TEDx speaker, motivational speaker and trainer, Poduval lives in Navi Mumbai.
She is of firm opinion that girls and women must assert themselves and learn to say no and men must realise that when she says no, it’s a no, she said quoting Amitabh Bachhan’s dialogue in Bollywood movie Pink.
