Alencier behaved abominably on sets, reveals filmmaker

Two days after actress Divya Gopinath accused fellow professional Alancier Lopez of sexual harassment, the director of a recent Malayalam movie in which the two acted came out in support of the young female artiste. Jubith Namradath said Alancier was so unmanageable on the sets of 'Aabhaasam' that the film released this May required an assistant director to exclusively handle the 52-year-old actor.

In a Facebook post, Jubith says Alancier went increasingly worse in his conduct during the making of the film that the director had to repeatedly request him to be decent.

“It was perhaps a result of such warnings that Alancier began behaving unprofessionally down the course of the making of the film. After the schedule gap, he would have cut his hair short, totally out of tune with the character (he was presenting in the movie). When asked, he would reply, ‘I have to do other films, too, simultaneously. Not just yours.’ In combination scenes, he would deliver foul words instead of the dialogues. When confronted, he would retort, ‘Isn’t the title aabhaasam (parody)? Then this is all fine.’ Alancier has fallen into the deep pit that people with blind admiration for superstars and their bossy conduct fall.”

Here’s the full text of the Facebook post:

Let me reiterate a 100 times that Divya Gopinath’s words are right. Any clean soul who worked in Aabhaasam will stand with her.

I did read Alancier’s counter-arguments on Malayala Manorama’s News TV page, where he says the sets of Aabhaasam were enjoyable, everyone would visit everyone else’s rooms, all would drink, and that he committed minor mistakes in intoxication and had only knocked the door of Divya’s room and not stamped on it, and that what she says is not fully right.

If the sets tuned out to be enjoyable, it was because we had a bit team that didn’t go by archetypal models. It was because of the efforts by the producer, the production team, each in the direction team and the camera team, besides the actresses, actors and all others.

True, no protocol needs to be followed if a costume designer, assistant directors and close friends need to enter the room of actresses or female technicians. But, what else other than a predator’s mind gets unveiled when you, drunk and with a definite aim, keep banging on the door of an actress’ room and, on finding she is not opening, begin to kick it? What does it betray when you get into the blanket of the cot taking advantage of one having forgotten to bolt the door?

Alancier has fallen into the deep pit that people with blind admiration for superstars and their bossy conduct fall. Today it is Alancier, tomorrow it can be those superstars.

Yesterday, News 18 reporter asked me amid the channel debate what I did when I came to know of the incident. My reply is I did what I could. I cautioned him (Alancier) in the most decent way. We had to keep an assistant director just to take care of him, monitoring his movements: where all he goes, and inspect which all rooms are occupied by who all. Such measures managed to somewhat restrain his indiscipline. Aabhaasam was a project of Rs 3 crore. Our priority was to finish it as scheduled. The movie was my directorial debut, so I must concede I was inexperienced.

Now everyone of you have come to know about the incidents. Let me ask you in return: What are you doing?

It was perhaps a result of such warnings that Alancier began behaving unprofessionally down the course of the making of the film. After the schedule gap, he would have cut his hair short, totally out of tune with the character (he was presenting in the movie). When asked, he would reply, ‘I have to do other films, too, simultaneously. Not just yours.’ In combination scenes, he would deliver foul words instead of the dialogues. When confronted, he would retort, ‘Isn’t the title aabhaasam (parody)? Then this is all fine. Somehow we managed to complete the scenes involving.

Divya is not the lone actress to have faced Alacier’s assault. While extending solidarity with her expose, I hope the others will come out of their revelations, taking their own time.

Let #MeToo gain strength.