A man from Kozhikode has filed a sexual abuse complaint against director Ranjith Balakrishnan, who recently stepped down from the chair of Kerala Chalachitra Academy on the allegation of misbehaviour raised by a female actor.
In his complaint sent to the state police chief, the man alleges Ranjith of sexually abusing him at a five-star hotel in Bengaluru in 2012.
The complainant also shared his alleged ordeal with the media. The man has claimed that Ranjith saw him during the shooting of Mammootty-starrer 'Bavuttiyude Namathil' in Kozhikode and gave him his mobile number written on tissue paper.
"I met him at a five-star hotel in Bengaluru. He told me to get naked, saying he wanted to see how I looked. He said my eyes were beautiful and asked me to do my eyebrows. I cannot say the things he did to me now. I will tell that to the police," the complainant told a news channel.
The man said he wanted a role in movies, but since the alleged crime, Ranjith has evaded him.
This is the first time a man has come forward with a sexual abuse complaint since a wave of Me Too allegations hit the Malayalam film industry after the Hema Commission report came out. Ranjith is one of the many leading figures in the Malayalam film industry against whom complaints of misconduct/sexual harassment have been levelled by their female colleagues.
Bengali actor Sreelekha Mitra had filed a complaint against Ranjith, claiming he misbehaved with her in the pretext of a movie discussion in Kochi in 2009.
