The last one week has been an important one for women in India, marking a watershed moment where women have been outing their harassers with their identity and anonymously, too. While this is being dubbed as India’s #MeToo and #TimesUp movement that was originally started by student Raya Sarkar’s list of sexual harassers in academia (LoSHA) last year, this year the moment gained more attention a week ago when former actress Tanushree Dutta shared how veteran actor Nana Patekar abused and harassed her ten years ago.
Ever since then, women have been opening up about workplace harassment with several names of prominent figures being added to the list. Journalist Sandhya Menon, who has been sharing stories of harassment endured by several women, shared a screenshot of an anonymous journalist accusing National Awards winning Tamil lyricist Vairamuthu of sexual misconduct.
On lyricist Vairamuthu pic.twitter.com/c6DwYWOO6C
— Sandhya Menon (@TheRestlessQuil) October 8, 2018
Adding that he’s a predator, the person wrote: “Under the pretext of explaining lyrics, he came to me, hugged and kissed me. I did not know what to do. I said OK sir, thank you and ran from his house.”
Singer Chinmayi Sripada, too, corroborated this by saying that the ‘industry knows’ and that his #TimesUp.
The industry knows; the men know. #TimesUp
The time is bloody up. https://t.co/UuZpaNQBhm— Chinmayi Sripaada (@Chinmayi) October 8, 2018
She has since been sharing accounts of women who faced similar interactions with the 65-year-old lyricist.
Adding another victim’s story. pic.twitter.com/ZrId3wPfrO
— Chinmayi Sripaada (@Chinmayi) October 9, 2018
When asked if she would sing the songs penned by him, this was her response:
“I *will* sing the songs that I have sung in his lyrics so far. Dheivam Thanda Poove, Sara Sara, Mayya are some of my finest songs that display MY singing prowess in some composer’s fantastic work. Anyway I am sure *HE* will make sure I don’t sing anymore,” she wrote.
