Actress Radhikaa Sarathkumar recently shared her concerns about the safety of female actors in the film industry. During an interview, she spoke about a disturbing incident she witnessed on a film set in Kerala. According to Radhikaa, she saw a group of men gathered around, laughing at something on a screen. When she investigated further, she discovered that they were watching a video of a female actor changing clothes, secretly recorded inside her vanity van.
Radhikaa recounted, “I was on set in Kerala when I noticed a group of people laughing at something. Curious, I approached them and realized they were watching a video. When I asked a crew member what it was, he revealed that it was footage from hidden cameras placed inside vanity vans, capturing women while they changed their clothes. He casually mentioned that one only needed to search for the artist’s name to find such videos.”
This incident left Radhikaa deeply disturbed and fearful for her safety on film sets. She explained, “After witnessing that, I was scared to use vanity vans. I started changing in my hotel room instead. A vanity van should be a private space where we can change clothes, rest, or eat. It was horrifying to think that this privacy could be violated so easily.”
Radhikaa, who has worked across multiple film industries including Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada, chose not to disclose the names of the people involved. When asked to identify the individuals or the film they were working on, she said, “If we spit looking upwards, it will fall on our face only. So I don’t want to take names.”
The senior actress also expressed her anger towards the situation, stating that she confronted the men responsible and warned them. “I have seen videos of women changing clothes in vans. I told them this was wrong and warned the van crew that if I ever found a camera in my van, I would hit them with chappals [slippers]. I was furious and insisted on feeling safe in my workspace. They assured me they would ‘look into it,’ but I knew I couldn’t rely on that.”
Radhikaa also questioned the delay in the release of the Justice Hema Committee report, which investigated sexual harassment in the Malayalam film industry. The report was submitted to the Kerala government in 2019 but was kept confidential for several years. “I was wondering why there was so much delay in the release of the Justice Hema Committee report. I have been in the industry for 46 years. Of course, there have been people who have tried to misbehave with me. Women should be empowered to say ‘No’ when such incidents happen to them. No man has said anything in any industry. So the onus is back on women. Now, they have to shoulder this responsibility of safeguarding themselves,” she remarked.
