Kochi: The usually reticent filmmaker and chairman of the State Chalachithra Academy Kamal, on Wednesday, urged the media and social media to stop playing ‘super police’ in order to allow the police to carry out its job.
Talking in solidarity with women survivors of sexual attack here, he said ‘criminalisation’ had almost become a fad with the media and the social media giving undue prominence to ‘criminals’.
“If the Malayalam cinema is accused of celebrating a certain kind of criminal-minded characters sometime ago, the media is equally culpable for making criminals larger than life. It instigates a tendency among the youth to emulate them,” he said.
Kamal said indication of involvement of people in the film fraternity in the crime against the young actor was painful. But ruthless media trial only helped divert the correct course of investigation, he said reports suggesting the involvement of actors Dileep and Sidharth Bharathan in the case didn’t have an iota of truth in them.
Lauding the survivor of the attack as a symbol for her courage, he said it was time mothers tried to find out where their teenage boys were going and what they were doing. “It’s not the girls who should be asked this. Mothers should find out what their sons are doing,” he said.
Actor and Sangeetha Nataka Akademi chairperson KPAC Lalitha grew emotional and asked everyone to extend support in nabbing the real criminals. She denied report that suggested the involvement of her son in the case and said, “if he had done a crime, I would say he should be lashed and beaten to death, but it breaks my heart that aspersions are being cast on innocent people.”
The actor said the crime against the young actor was not driven by sex; it was instead for money. “The criminals should be hanged and should not be allowed to be set free after a few years of imprisonment. Or, they should be handed over to the people to carry out justice,” she said in an emotional speech.
ENDS
