Tamil actress Kutty Padmini has alleged that she was sexually abused when she was just 10 years old. She was one of the members of the internal complaints committee formed by the South Indian Artistes’ Association (SIAA) during the #MeToo movement in 2019. The actress on Friday said all the lawsuits being made against sexual abuse in the film industry will come to nothing unless proper laws are made for it.

“In fact, the situation is so bad that I have not allowed my three daughters to even come close to the Tamil film industry,” the actor told PTI.

Padmini started her career as a three-month-old child and later won the National Award for Child Artist for her performance in ‘Kuzhandaiyum Deivamum’. The actor alleged that she was abused as a child and said, “I told my mother about it and when my mother questioned the producers, we were thrown out of the film.”

Pointing to singer Chinmayi, who had blamed lyricist Vairamuthu during the MeToo movement, and actor Sri Reddy, who had alleged that financier Subramani and his assistant Gopi had attacked him, he said the situation remained the same even after so many years.

When asked about the 10-member committee promised by actor Vishal, who is also the general secretary of SIAA, Padmini said that the committee formed by him after the MeToo wave has not gone anywhere.

She said, “Women like Revathi, Rohini and Suhashini are very powerful when it comes to women in the industry. Yet, not a single meeting took place during that time. No one came forward to speak. The truth is that there is really no proof for any of this, as women often speak about it years later. So, it is very easy to dismiss them. Take my case, child abuse is a very serious crime, but the culprits have not been punished. This has always been the case.”

(With inputs from PTI)