Malayalam director Lal Jose said that he thinks twice before employing women in his movies in the aftermath of the #MeToo movement. Responding to a question, Lal Jose said that he was afraid of getting into some kind of trouble.
Quoting the examples of Sameera Saneesh and Kuku Parameswaran who have worked as costume designers on his movies, the Meesha Madhavan director said that women have been working in his movies for as long as 10 years. However, the #MeToo movement has given him second thoughts about employing women as his assistants.
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Elaborating on the point, he said “When I am on sets, sometimes I am angry and sometimes friendly. I talk to men and women in the same way. But not necessarily everyone will take my behaviour in a good sense. This movement has created fear but the concern here is if the fear is for good or for bad.”
The director also said that he was worried about other women losing out on film opportunities because of this fear harboured by filmmakers.
During the course of the video interview, the director also took the example of a Delhi based ad filmmaker whose name came up in the movement in connection with an incident that happened twenty years ago. The director said that further investigation into the matter proved that these allegations were false.
“I don’t understand what a woman gains by levelling an accusation against a man for an incident that happened 20 years ago. Especially when the man is at a completely different stage in his life.”
The director was promoting his new movie Thattumpurathu Achuthan starring Kunchako Boban.
Earlier Mohanlal’s statements on the #MeToo movement calling it a fad had become a controversy. He had said that men could also come up with a #MeToo movement.
Image Courtesy: The Hindu