HYDERABAD: Adoor Gopalakrishnan, the winner of second highest civilian award Padma Vibhushan, is undoubtedly the greatest name in Malayalam film industry of all times, and one of the most renowned filmmakers in India. As a mark of respect for his literary genius, the governments and non-governmental organisations have bestowed upon him many titles, and the chairmanship of K R Narayanan Institute of Visual Science and Arts (KRNNIVSA) was one among them. Recently, Adoor was in the middle of a storm regarding his support for the director of the institute, Shankar Mohan, who was accused of casteism inside the institute.
KRNNIVSA is an autonomous institute established by the Government of Kerala at Thekkumthala in Kottayam district as a training-cum-research centre in film/audio-visual technology. The institute was named after former president K. R. Narayanan, a dalit, who hailed from Kerala. On January 21, Shankar Mohan resigned from the post of director, owing to the allegations of caste discrimination by some of the students and cleaning staff of the institute. The resignation came following the 49-day old indefinite strike by the students.
The students had accused the director and the management of caste bias against cleaning staff of the institute, violation of reservation norms for students admission and denial of permission to students to work on their diploma films. The cleaning staff alleged that they were made to clean the toilets of the director's official residence. At this stage, Adoor accused the students and the cleaning staff of levelling baseless allegations against the director. The students also alleged that despite their request in an open letter to the chairman raising the issue of caste discrimination, the latter refused to intervene and blindly supported the director. The cleaning staff said that Adoor had not heard their version even once.
The Kerala government had constituted a probe panel headed by former chief secretary K. Jayakumar. The panel reportedly found some of the allegations to be true. A number of personalities from the Malayalam film industry including directors Aashiq Abu, Kamal, Dr Biju, Amal Neerad, Vidhu Vincent, Sajitha Madathil, Jeo Baby, actor Parvathy, Hareesh Peradi and music director Biji Bal had backed the agitating students.
A week after the director’s resignation, Adoor also quit from the post of chairman. At the press conference to announce his resignation, he discarded the allegation raised by the students and cleaning staff that the director and his wife forced sanitation workers to clean the toilet of his official residence. He also added that there were no sanitation workers belonging to the scheduled caste. This irked the netizens and other film personalities, who vehemently criticised Adoor.
Vairamuthu episode:
However, this is not the first time he is drawing flak for his apathy towards victims in various abuse cases. In May 2021, noted Malayalam writer K.R. Meera came out slamming the filmmaker when ONV Cultural Academy (in the name of poet O.N.V. Kurup), under the chairmanship of Adoor, decided to honour Tamil poet and lyricist Vairamuthu. The decision was widely criticised as Vairamuthu has faced a slew of allegations of sexual harassment from many women, including singer Chinmayi.
Though his films speak volumes about the rights of the victims, and how they were exploited by the ones in power, personally when he spoke up about the ward to Vairamuthu, he mocked the questions, saying “a separate special award could be given for character.” “The award is given for excellence in writing. My personal opinion is that awards should not be decided on the basis of character. As chairman of the Cultural Society, I do not interfere in the decisions of the jury,” he said.
Actor abuse case:
Similar was Adoor’s stance in the notorious rape quotation against a female actor by one of the leading actors in Malayalam - Dileep. In the same press conference to announce his resignation from KRNNIVSA, he also added that until the court verdict, he would not call Dileep an accused. In February 2017, the South Indian female actor was abducted while returning home from a shoot and was subjected to sexual assault by a gang of men. Dileep was arrested in July 2017 after it emerged that he was connected to the main accused. He was then released on bail in October, 2017.
