Actress Parvathy says she was assaulted at the age of 4

Actress Parvathy recently attended the Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival in Mumbai where she revealed that she was assaulted when she was three or four years old.

Parvathy said it took her years to realise that she was assaulted as a child, and that it's still a daily affair for her to consider herself a survivor. "It happened to me when I was very young. It took me 17 years to realise it did happen to me. I was three or four years old. I didn't ask for it. But I was assaulted. And then to speak about it, it took me another 12 years," she said.

She also said the Malayalam film industry needs to learn from Bollywood superstars to act immediately in cases of sexual harassment.

“We were amazed to see that men, who are in forefront, who are successful producers and actors, coming ahead and lending their voice to this. That is something we are missing out not just in Malayalam industry but Tamil and Telugu industry as well,” she said.

Parvathy lauded the prompt decisions by top Bollywood actors and filmmakers to distance themselves from those accused of sexual harassment as the #MeToo movement gained ground.

"To sit and speak of it as a fact that has happened to me...but not being defined by my gender. So, I sit here as a person first and then rest of the tags come in.

"But you know where the survival part comes... it's still a struggle for me on a daily basis to realise it, acknowledge it and get past it. It's a daily affair. And then let my friends know, my parents cope with it. It becomes an extreme exercise on a daily basis," she opened up.

The actress also shared that she was brought up as a pretty confident and outspoken girl. Still she wondered whether she had asked for it or  deserved it. "As a personal experience, I know it's still a daily affair for me to consider myself a survivor. Survival is not just a physical thing. It's a constant mental affair. So, I kind of really draw a lot of power from that word," Parvathy noted.