Viral: Mohanlal Once Discounted The #MeToo Movement, Now Its Back To Haunt Ex AMMA President

#MeToo Rocks Mollywood: Malayalam star Mohanlal, who has been at the top positions of the state-run Association of Malayalam Movie Actors (AMMA) since its inception in 1994, recently resigned as its President following the storm that has engulfed the South Indian film industry with #MeToo accusations flying fast in the wake of the Hema Committee Report findings.

As more women come to the fore and share their #MeToo stories, allegedly bolstered by years of systematic negligence, presence and influence of a "power group" in Mollywood, there is heavy scrutiny on the bigwigs of the industry. Meanwhile, an old interview of Mohanlal has also gone viral in which he spoke lightly of the #MeToo movement, even brushing aside its severity under the garb of "not knowing too much about it".

Mohanlal's old controversial statements on #MeToo movement

Back in 2019, the Malayalam superstar was questioned over the leniency that AMMA was seemingly observing towards culprits in the case of abduction and sexual assault of an actress in a moving vehicle on the outskirts of Kochi in 2017, which also involved actor Dileep (former AMMA Vice President) . In response, Mohanlal said, "There’s no big problem in the Malayalam industry. You shouldn’t think of #MeToo as a movement actually. It’s a fad and it’s turning into something of a fashion. Anything like that will have a lifespan for a bit,” said Mohanlal at a press conference in Dubai, according to Gulf News.

Mohanlal further said, “It (sexual misconduct) can happen anywhere in life, not just in films." The actor claimed he didn’t know much about the #MeToo movement to be an authority on that subject.

'Men can also come out with a #MeToo'

Speaking to Gulf News, Mohanlal shared, "We (men) can also come out with a #MeToo, gender-wise. I cannot make a comment on that. Only when you experience something like that, you can make a comment on it. Just giving a comment on it isn’t the right thing. I don’t know much about it (#MeToo)."