Malayalam actress Parvathy Menon has filed a police complaint against her online harassers, who trolled her after she called out sexism in Mammootty’s movie, Kasaba. Parvathy has been on the receiving end of these online trolls for the past two weeks. While Mammootty and other actors from the Malayalam film industry have been silent on the entire issue, the actress has filed a complaint with the Cyber Cell of the Kerala Police in Ernakulam, as per The News Minute .
@parvatweets well done with the police complaint. High time the harassers are unmasked. A group of Tamil tweeters did the same – threaten I ll go out of work some years ago and launched a campaign that I said ‘fishermen can die coz they are meat eaters’.
— Chinmayi Sripaada (@Chinmayi) December 26, 2017
The actress took on sexism and misogyny prevalent in the Malayalam industry at the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) this month. She mentioned Malayalam film industry’s popular actor, Mammootty delivering utterly misogynistic dialogues in his movie Kasaba (2016). And that’s when all hell broke loose. But she never bowed down.
Poster of Mammotty’s film, Kasaba
Vanamala vannallo!!! #trolls
Welcome welcome- please kindly take my words out of context, remind me that I’m “just a actress” and curse at me. Here’s to your sensitive chauvinistic blind hearts! Yours- that annoying feminist. pic.twitter.com/HSUMjHXIKg— Parvathy T K (@parvatweets) December 12, 2017
Also read: 2017 saw Mollywood actors take on the industry’s normalised misogyny
While there were many who supported the actress’s bravery for pointing out the inherent sexism in the industry, Mammootty’s fans and admirers unleashed a series of intimidating messages, death and rape threats.
When millions of us rise against misogynistic films, how many of us will fans have the energy to abuse? Here you go #Mammooty fans, I wrote this on #Kasaba when it was released. It was D.I.S.G.U.S.T.I.N.G. https://t.co/AvCmjfPEm3 #Parvathy #StandUpStars #SpeakUpMammootty #MeToo
— Anna MM Vetticad (@annavetticad) December 19, 2017
In fact, it wasn’t only these threats, according to the report, Parvati said:
Death and rape threats were there, and so was work intimidation. Many of them threatened me saying I will go out of work for what I had said. They said my career would be finished… Although the trolls believe that they have the clout to intimidate, they actually don’t possess that power.”
Talking about freedom of speech of these online trolls and the responsibilities that come with it, Parvathy said:
We cannot control those on social media and we should not take away their freedom of speech. But people need to differentiate between what is abuse and what is not. At least a few who have crossed that line and sent sexual threats against women have to be held accountable.”
Also read: 7 fantastic women who refused to be shamed by trolls in 2017
The officials have initiated action as one of the Cyber Cell official said:
We are monitoring 4-5 accounts on Twitter and other platforms. Most of them are fake accounts, that’s what people resort to for abusing people on social media. We have requested Twitter to provide us the details of these accounts. As and when we receive the information, it will be forwarded to Ernakulam South police station, where the case is filed.”
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