Malayalam director Sanal Sasidharan whose 2014 fill S. Durga created a communal stir, is now fighting to release his farewell film Vazhakku which Sanal claims, the film’s leading man Thomas Tovino, is obstructing from release.
Tovino has vehemently denied this, arguing logically, that it would be in his interest to release Vazhakku, as he is a producer on the project.
When I caught up with this fearless filmmaker in the US, he shocked me by saying he had given up filmmaking and the country. “ I stopped making films some years ago. My last film was Vazhakku which is in the news for all the wrong reasons right now.”
Why did Sanal make such a drastic decision? “Too many threats. If I had continued staying in Kerala and making films I would have probably lost my life. I was being threatened from all the mediums possible. For the past few years I live in the US(city name being withheld). I am no longer a filmmaker. In fact I don’t know what I am any longer.”
Sanal who made a powerful chilling film on sexual harassment named Durga , was himself accused of the same crime . “A false sexual harassment accusation was made against me. In May 2022 I was arrested one morning. That’s when I decided to leave the country. You will be surprised to know two years have passed, and no case has been registered against me . No legal procedure, nothing. It is very disturbing that I was driven into a corner by vested interested in the Malayalam film industry.”
Who are these vested interests?
Says Sanal, “There is a money-laundering machinery operating in the Malayalam film industry. Films claim to have been made at Rs 100 crores actually are made at no more than 15-20 crores. Who in the Malayalam industry has that kind of money? The money laundering racket is supported by powerful politicians,so no one asks questions. I did. And look at where I have landed.”
Sanal also claims there is an “active sex racket” in the Malayalam film industry.
“I am paying a price for talking about these issues that the Malayalam film industry doesn’t want to address,” says Sanal.
His last film Vazhakku is stuck and he blames his leading man for it. “Tovino Thomas feels it will harm his career . If he felt this way, why did he do this film with me?I guess superstars have their own satellites. These actors are ill-advised. The Malayalam film industry is like an underworld. It creates its own heroes.”
Sanal is all alone in US with no family(he got divorced some years ago and his children live with their mother) and friends. “But I am fine. I am enjoying my solitude. I like my own company.”