South Indian actress Padmapriya recently shared a troubling incident from a Tamil film set years ago, where she was slapped by a director in front of others. Speaking at an event, she clarified that the media had falsely reported that she slapped the director, questioning why she would have filed a complaint if that were the case. The 44-year-old actress highlighted how women’s experiences are often misrepresented. Following the incident, the director was banned from making films for six months, but the experience led Padmapriya to stop accepting Tamil film roles. She mentioned that, until then, she had never had such a negative experience on set.
Without naming the director, she shared that he slapped her in front of everyone after the shoot ended. She was told that she was not emoting properly. “For a long time, I thought I was the issue,” Padmapriya said, according to Manorama News. She also said that the incident was reported as the opposite. “When a woman talks about issues, she becomes the issue,” she added.
The actress, known for her work in a few Malayalam films, also pointed out the inequality that women face in the film industry.
Not long back, Padmapriya Janakiraman termed AMMA (Association of Malayalam Movie Artists), the actor body in Malayalam cinema, a disorganised and ineffective organisation. She described the mass resignation of AMMA’s executive committee as an irresponsible move. In a recent interview with Asianet News, Padmapriya stated that she did not expect the mass resignations from AMMA. She criticised the film bodies for treating the current issues merely as sexual harassment allegations rather than addressing the “underlying power dynamics that enable such misconduct.”
She raised concerns about the lack of clarity regarding the actions to be taken based on the recommendations of the Justice Hema Committee. The actress shared a personal experience from her time in Malayalam cinema. “When I was around 25-26 years old, a leading production manager asked me, ‘Aren’t you getting too old? Maybe it’s time to stop.’ This is the kind of perspective that exists in the Malayalam industry,” she said.
Padmapriya Janakiraman, better known as Padmapriya, mainly stars in Malayalam films. Padmapriya made her acting debut in the year 2004 with the Telugu film Seenu Vasanthi Lakshmi. Some of her popular works include Thavamai Thavamirundhu, Karutha Pakshikal, Mirugam, and Pazhassi Raja, to name a few.
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