In a shocking incident, actress Athira Santhosh was admitted to a hosital in Chennai after she consumed poison in an apparent suicide bid. Speaking to some members of the media from her hospital bed, a tearful Athira alleged that director Selva Kannan had been sexually harrassing her for months, and she took the extreme step as she had not recieved help from any quarter.
The actress mentioned that she had filed a police complaint and also a complaint against the director in the Nadigar Sangam - which is the Tamil Association of Film Artists.
The actress alleged that Selva had been forcing Aditi to marry him, claiming that he was 'madly in love' with her. When Aditi rejected his proposal, the director allegedly started harassing her continuously, including showing up at her home late in the night and stalking her on sets. Selva even locked Aditi up in a room once. However, she escaped from Chennai and went back to Kerala.
When Aditi came back to Chennai to shoot for a commercial ad, Selva, along with few friends, started abusing her physically on the sets which lef her take the decision to end her life.
Recently a few south actress like Radhika Apte and Tapsee have opened up about their experiences with their co-stars and filmmakers, who used to call in odd times and ask for sexual favours.
They also made comments about the attitude of males from the south industry, which they alleged was disparaging towards women.