Since his arrest on July 10, P Gopalakrishnan, popularly known as Dileep, has found himself caught in a grim story of twists that continues to unfold as a public, prime-time television spectacle in Kerala. The 48-year-old superstar, fondly called janapriyanayakan (popular hero) by fans, was welcomed at the sub-jail in Aluva where he is lodged in 14-day judicial custody, by jeering, even abusive crowds.
They booed and caught the fallen hero on their mobile phone cameras; the snarky ones promptly screamed out the portentous title of his 2016 film, Welcome to Central Jail. Three days after his arrest in connection with the alleged conspiracy behind abduction and molestation of a top actress in Kochi, it’s also hard to miss a hint of support building for the actor, especially on social media – the argument is that he’s, after all, only accused in the case and deserves better than a trial by media.
This contention, when viewed with a sudden spurt of reports hailing the actor’s ‘good side’, makes this a polarised debate with no sign of nuance, argued outside of the law.
The actress was molested in a moving car on the night of February 17 by the prime accused in the case, Sunilkumar aka ‘Pulsar’ Suni. The sexual assault was also captured on video by Suni’s aides. The accused is learnt to have told her that he was hired for what he did and was merely following orders.
The probe gathered pace with a counter-complaint from Dileep, claiming that he was being blackmailed, and a letter sent from Suni to the actor seeking financial compensation. Once the conspiracy theory gained credence, possibilities of Dileep’s involvement were being discussed, not entirely without reason — the survivor of the assault had earlier spoken, in an interview, about how her intervention in the personal life of an actor led to her being dropped from films.
It was reported that Dileep had an altercation with the actress, in 2013, over her alleged role in creating fissures in his marriage with actress Manju Warrier. After his divorce from Manju in 2015, Dileep married actress Kavya Madhavan, in 2016.
Three days after Dileep’s arrest, the assault survivor also spoke about a friendship gone sour following “personal differences”. She, however, denied that she was involved in any business partnership with Dileep and maintained that she would wait for closure in the case before making statements on the conspirators.
The arrest has also left Association of Malayalam Move Artists (AMMA), the apex body of actors in the film industry, grappling with uncomfortable questions. Actor Prithviraj, speaking soon after the expulsion of Dileep from the association, said it only took minutes for the executive committee to formalise the decision.
Interestingly, a few days earlier, the association had aggressively backed Dileep in the “smear campaign” against the actor. In a marked departure from their recent tradition of silence, the two biggest stars of the industry — Mohanlal and Mammootty — also took questions from the media on what, finally, led to action against the actor.
“Yes, it is shameful,” said Mammootty when questioned on the industry’s links with criminals — Suni, accused in many criminal cases, was also engaged as driver by industry professionals including Mukesh, a popular actor and CPM MLA from Kollam. “But as an association, it becomes difficult for us to scrutinise (people based on their past),” Mammootty added.
The questions, meanwhile, are getting shriller as more stories of factionalism, power games, benami real estate investments and absolute dominance of the male stars, even in affairs of the actors’ association, come out from the industry.
Calls for a shake-up of the old order are being made; amid silence of the stalwarts, some of the younger actors and film-makers have been more vocal about their positions with regard to the assault of the actress. The need for forming an exclusive association for women professionals — Women in Cinema Collective — also speaks about the way the film industry has been functioning.
The misogyny in some of Dileep’s most popular films became a necessary point of debate when the actor, before his arrest, stated that the assaulted actress and the accused were “friends”; he also sought from her caution when picking her friends.
Even more alarming was AMMA’s failure to act against members who indulged in victim-shaming on social media. The association’s president — Innocent, also a Left MP from Chalakkudy — went further in defence of what he called a “clean” industry by making an absurd claim that casting couch existed only when women with “loose morals” decided to be part of it.
High-profile cases
It’s difficult, like in other high-profile criminal cases in the state, to take politics out of the equation. The ruling Left was in the defensive after two of its MLAs and an MP backed Dileep before the arrest. The opposition Congress is also cornered over Dileep’s links with its MLA from Aluva, Anwar Sadath.
The big takeaway here, however, is the actress’ decision to file a police complaint about the assault. The state police has also been proactive in arresting Dileep, a star next only to Mohanlal and Mammootty in popularity and bigger than them in terms of industry clout.
The assaulted actress has reiterated that she hasn’t mentioned names of possible conspirators in her statements to the police. The Dileep camp, meanwhile, points out that the media offers space to his detractors, commenting on his “shady” business deals, criminal links and his alleged affair that broke his first marriage.
It’s a media trial arguably laced with some rancour but the arrest and subsequent debates, more importantly, have also effected a long-due reassessment of the Malayalam film industry and its internal politics of appeasement. Even for the cynics who argue that public memory is short, signs of a clean-up look real.
These are signs of a shift, from bullying unions, from unofficial bans and codes of silence, from yes-men coteries and cartels, and also from the organised, manufactured fan-club hysteria which surfaced in the 2000s and was, ironically, also endorsed by the now-critical media.