By Ila Ananya

The Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA), met yesterday, on 29^th June, to address the media, where they announced that they would do everything they can to protect its ‘children’. It was a much awaited meeting, mostly because people wanted to know exactly what stand they were taking on the case of well-known Malayalam actor being assaulted in a car in February this year.  What followed, were statements about how they were standing firmly behind both the survivor and Dileep (who has become involved in the investigation).

In the last week, the case seems to have spiralled into being all about Dileep, with very little being said about the case in itself and what the actor who was assaulted is now dealing with. We saw how so much of the conversation became about protecting the ‘innocent’ Dileep, with actor Aju Varghese and Salim Kumar making all kinds of statements. Kumar himself said all kinds of things like making Pulsar Suni and the survivor undergo lie detector tests. All of this came after Dileep made completely gross remarks about how the assault survivor needs to choose her friends better (referring to Suni, who’s the accused in the case).  On 28^th June, Dileep was questioned for 13 hours about his involvement in the case.

Anyway, following all this, now the AMMA has announced at the press meet that both Dileep and the survivor are its children — all while refusing to take a stand on the case. But in itself, the refusal to take a stand is also a way of supporting one person over the other — after all, the AMMA didn’t even say anything condemning what either Dileep, or the whole bunch of actors who supported Dileep said about the survivor.

What they also said was that the AMMA hadn’t discussed the case in a general body meeting because they claimed that nobody had brought it up. Actor Rima Kallingal, who is a part of the Women in Cinema Collective, however, did reportedly say that even though the topic was brought up at the meeting, it wasn’t considered for discussion.

It’s now the Women in Cinema Collective that has filed a complaint with the Kerala Women’s Commission against the Saji Nanthiyatt, the Vice President of the Kerala Film Chambers, who also made ridiculous statements against the survivor. They’re the only ones making an effort to show solidarity with the survivor, and this is hardly surprising.