Parvathy Opens Up on 20 Years in Cinema: On Ranjith's Arrest, WCC's Fight, and Why Speaking Up Cost Her Everything

As she completes two decades in the film industry, actor Parvathy Thiruvothu sat down for an exhaustive, no-holds-barred interview with News18 Showsha. Over the course of an hour, she spoke about the gendered gaslighting she faced at the start of her career, the near-eviction that nearly ended her journey, the brutal online trolling and death threats that followed her activism, the Hema Committee report and why it remains unimplemented, her own past complicity in blackface, and why male actors still face no consequences for abusive behaviour. This is her account, in her words, organised as a full news report.

Parvathy spoke at length about the Women in Cinema Collective (WCC), which she co-founded in 2017 following the actress assault case in Kerala. She was clear that the WCC has never been just about protests and slogans.

"We didn't do only protests and stuff," she said. "We went to the Chief Minister. We went to the Minister. We have been asking for studies to be done. The Hema Committee was formed. It was eventually dissolved. The report came out after many, many years of fights."

She asked the question that haunts the industry. "One would wonder why the report was kept under wraps for four and a half years while abuse continued. This is why it continues. This is why there is no fear of consequence. Because even when there is proof, there is no tangible preventive measure."

Parvathy outlined what she called the three Ps: prevention, prohibition, and punishment. "We must first learn to prevent. We shouldn't even get it to the point of punishment. There is just a performance happening in the name of punishment. There is nothing."

She noted that even after the Hema Committee report came out, the conversation was misdirected. "There were so many people who said, 'Yes, but the victims are not coming forward.' I was like, and what? When are you going to realise that the system itself has so many loopholes?"

She laid out the brutal math. "They can't make money to feed their families. How many women can afford that unless they come from money? These cases go on throughout their lives. The grassroots level reality isn't understood by people," she stated.

She welcomed the Kerala High Court's landmark judgment mandating Internal Complaints Committees (ICC) on every film set as per the POSH Act. But she also expressed frustration that it took two years to get there

Parvathy spoke openly and without hesitation about the recent arrest of director Ranjith in a sexual harassment case. When asked whether she was shocked by the news, her answer was immediate and blunt.

"Not at all," she said. "This current arrest of Ranjith does not come as a surprise or a shock to me. It will, of course, be a repeated offence. These are people who are not paying the price for what they did in the past."

'The Problem Is That a Woman Spoke and That She Made Sense'

Parvathy's own experience with speaking up has been brutal. She recalled the massive backlash she faced after criticizing the portrayal of women in a film starring industry titan Mamooty. Within a week of giving a statement at a film festival in Thiruvananthapuram, she was attacked online in what is called a "Pongala"--- a term that in Kerala's online context means being trolled and targeted.

"I didn't know what 'Pongala' meant," she said. "Pongala is usually the temple festival. But in Kerala, when there is a 'Pongala' online, it basically means you are being trolled. You are being attacked."

The magnitude of the attack was unbelievable. She was willing to ignore it at first. But then came the rape threats and the death threats.

"Then I was like, okay, I should think about this. This is illegal. This is something that we should be going to the police about. Because I was still okay to just ignore."

Then she had a realization. "Oh, I am actually not the problem here. The problem is that a woman spoke and that she made sense. And that you cannot ruffle these feathers. The problem is not me. The problem is what I represent."

That realization changed everything for her. She stopped fighting as an individual and started fighting as a representative of a collective.

"The moment I am thinking that I am fighting for myself, nothing will happen. I will go home. I don't want to fight," she said. "I don't want my niece when she grows up at any point in her life to be fighting the same fights. I mean, I am on level three. She might have to fight the fight on level 17. That's fine. But I should have pulled my weight at this point for her to do her fight at a later point."

Parvathy described the chilling effect her speaking up had on her career. "The moment they see they are seen being with me, their roles will be taken away. So the punishment was very heavy for those people who would stand by me at the peak of it."

She named two actors who stood by her without hesitation: Asif Ali and Tovino Thomas. "At the peak of it is when Asif and Tovino did very well with me."

She also named the producers who backed her when every other producer had abandoned her. "When every producer stopped wanting to work with me, Asif, Shynu, and Shagana of S Cube cast me. They paid me the highest pay a female could get in the industry at that time. They made me the lead actor. They took that risk. The film became a success."

She paused. "If that is not the true meaning of a blessing, is it not?"

Parvathy said she has no complaints about those who did not stand by her. She understands the calculus of survival. "Everybody's survival is on the line. I realise that that's the nature of this game."

She has also heard stories of male actors saying they do not want to work with her. "Sometimes they are so threatened. I don't think they were as threatened to work with me in the capacity of an actor to actor. But in the industry and in workplace, I do believe that men who don't speak up are also seeking male validation. They have a locker room validation structure going on."

She explained the fear that keeps men silent. "If they kind of shift away and start working with the enemy team, then they won't get the distribution and backing and funding. So why be an ally when you can just be quiet and hope it will pass?"

Blackface and Colourism

Parvathy addressed her early film Poo. "Not proud. Not at all proud actually. When you know better, you do better. That's where I am coming from. My apologies won't matter, but I apologise. Like I didn't know any better, but I wouldn't do that again."

She contrasted that with her approach to Take Off. "When you do a film like Take Off, and you have Pa. Ranjith leading the way- I remember when I got the casting call and I spoke to him, the first thing I told him was that I am not going to do blackface. Gangamal can't be blackfaced. She can be tanned. She is working in the fields. That tan will happen anyway. Keep me there for two days, I will naturally get my sunburns and all of that. Then we will have skin peeling according to the number of days they are under the sun- all of the actual things that would happen to a worker in the field."

She recalled being surprised that on one set, everyone else was getting blackfaced. "I remember telling Ranjith that when this question comes, I will direct it to you. It is not my barrel to fight. Because here is somebody who is leading the way of a movement, and everybody does understand where he is coming from."

Parvathy also recalled a moment of being called out. After one of her films, at a panel discussion, two women stood up holding a poster. "Whom are you representing when you are representing a dark woman?"

"I remember being spellbound," Parvathy said. "Protesting is all cool and activism is cool when you are doing it from a distance. When it's done to you, it's different."

She said she is grateful. "I don't think that I am above being called out. Please call me out. I would love to learn. Because I am not coming here to prove that I am this or I am that. I want to be better. 100 percent. Simple."