'She didn't raise anything with ICC on set, move unexpected': Producer on sexual abuse plaint against director Ranjith

The arrest of filmmaker Ranjith late Tuesday night has once again placed the Malayalam film industry under scrutiny, with senior producers reacting sharply even as police began investigating the sexual harassment complaint against the director.

Producer Maha Subair, who is associated with an upcoming film directed by Ranjith, said the allegation came as a complete surprise and claimed that no grievance had been raised during the shoot. “This complaint was quite unexpected. No complaint was filed on the set. We feel the survivor may have raised the allegation because she did not get the role or screen time she expected,” he said.

Producers’ association president B Rakesh echoed this line of defence, pointing to the existence of an Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) on the set. “Only when a complaint is filed do we become aware of such incidents. An ICC was in place on the set, with an external advocate as a member, and the committee had visited the location. The responsibility to raise a complaint rests with the survivor, and all the necessary legal mechanisms were available to her,” he said.

Their statements came hours after Kochi City Police took Ranjith into custody following a complaint filed by a young actress, who alleged that he attempted to sexually assault her inside a caravan at a shooting location on January 30. The complaint was registered two months later, and the director was taken into custody from Thodupuzha on March 31 before the arrest was formally recorded.

Onmanorama contacted AMMA vice-president Lakshmipriya for her response to the developments, and she said that repeated allegations against directors like Ranjith reflected a troubling sense of impunity within the industry. “The punishment for harassment is still not strong enough. No matter how many provisions are introduced for women’s safety, as long as there are loopholes in the law, such incidents will continue to happen. The fact that they act with such confidence even when Internal Complaints Committees exist shows what needs to change,” she said. Lakshmipriya added that she was expressing her personal views and was not speaking on behalf of AMMA.

Sources close to Ranjith said the director had been unwell and was taken to Ernakulam General Hospital after complaining of uneasiness, adding that they were unaware of any such allegations prior to the police action.

The arrest has revived debate over whether the mechanisms introduced in recent years to address sexual harassment in the film industry are functioning as intended. In 2022, the Kerala High Court, in Women in Cinema Collective v. State of Kerala, clarified that film sets and production units must be treated as workplaces under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013. The court held that any production engaging ten or more workers, including actors and technicians, is required to constitute an Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) to address complaints.

The court also directed film associations and industry bodies to set up ICCs if they employed ten or more staff in their offices. In situations where fewer than ten workers were engaged or where no committee existed, women were given the right to approach the district-level Local Complaints Committee for redressal. These directions were intended to close long-standing gaps in the industry, where project-based employment and informal work structures often left women without a formal forum to raise complaints.

The Kerala State Film Policy released in March 2026 sought to further strengthen these safeguards. The policy proposed that all film production units must establish Internal Committees in line with the POSH Act and ensure that they function effectively. It also recommended the creation of an independent state-level tribunal to monitor the functioning of these committees and hear appeals against their decisions, stating that gender equality was essential in a sector as large and influential as cinema.

Ranjith’s arrest comes just days after the policy was made public, making his case the first to be registered after its release. The development follows another recent case in the industry, with Ernakulam Town South Police having registered a case against director Chidambaram S Pothuval for allegedly outraging the modesty of a woman shortly before the policy announcement.

The director has previously faced allegations of misconduct. A Bengali actress had earlier accused him of inappropriate behaviour during discussions related to his film Paleri Manikyam, a controversy that eventually led to his resignation as chairman of the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy. In 2024, after the release of the Hema Committee report, the same actress accused him of sexual assault. The High Court later quashed that case, noting a considerable delay in lodging the complaint.

Questions over delayed complaints have surfaced in several other cases involving prominent figures in the industry. In July 2024, the Karnataka High Court quashed an unnatural sex case filed against Ranjith by an aspiring male actor. In another instance, the Supreme Court granted anticipatory bail to Malayalam actor Siddique in a rape case, observing that the FIR had been filed in 2024 over an alleged incident that took place in 2016.

The timeline in the present case is notably shorter. According to the complaint, the alleged incident took place on January 30, and the case was registered two months later. Even so, the gap between the alleged incident and the complaint has become part of the conversation, reflecting a pattern in which delays often become a key factor in legal proceedings.