Charithra Chandran criticises showbiz culture of pitting people of colour against each other

Highlights:

• February 2017: Actress abducted and sexually assaulted; case reported the next day.
• Legal journey: Trial ran nearly nine years, with witnesses turning hostile and evidence disputes.
• Verdict: Six accused convicted; actor Dileep acquitted of conspiracy in December 2025.
• Industry impact: Led to WCC, Hema Committee report, and exposure of systemic harassment.
• Aftermath: Protests, public backlash, and survivor’s statement questioning justice and equality.

You arrive in Kochi, and it feels like the sea air makes everything slightly sharper; faces in the city look purposeful, a film poster peels at the corner of a wall. In a city that has cradled a thriving film industry for decades, a single crime on the night of 17 February 2017 ruptured the ordinary: an abduction, a recorded sexual assault and a survivor who reported it the next day. What happened next is every woman’s unspoken nightmare, weaponised into brutal reality. It was a public unpeeling of an industry’s power structures, a slow-motion fight over evidence and testimony, and a national debate about how institutions protect (or fail) women.

For over eight years, her fight for justice became a mirror held up to an entire industry and a society. It was a journey from the dark confines of that car to the glaring lights of a courtroom, from being a silenced victim to becoming a defiant survivor whose voice sparked a revolution. This is not just the story of a crime. It is the story of what happens when one woman says, "Enough," and the tremors that follow.