Bengaluru: Ere Gowda, director of award-winning Bale Kempa movie, and story writer of another award-winning movie Thithi has now been accused of misbehaving with a crew member of his film. Following the accusations, Bale Kempa has been dropped from several international cinema festivals.
A woman from Bengaluru, through her Facebook post, levelled MeToo allegations against Ere Gowda. She alleged that the incident happened at the time of post-production works of Bale Kempa movie.
In her post, she alleged that at his friends home in Bengaluru, Gowda came near her and tried to kiss. “I told him that I am not interested and pushed him away. That was the start of it. He would put his hand on my chest. I would push it away. The hand would come back. When I look back now, I know that if I had texted my friend and asked him to come, he would have come. But at that moment, I was petrified. Ere Gowda was tall and much stronger than me. I did not want to piss him off for I knew that I wouldn’t be able to fight him. My body had gone into survival mode. I knew that I just want to get through this one night. And so it went on. He kept coming back. I told him that I am on my periods. He asked me if I am lying. I told him that I could show my blood-wet pad if he is interested. I don’t know how I managed to close my eyes and sleep off. When I opened my eyes he was still there, staring at me. He said that it is not possible for him to sleep. He asked if he could masturbate in front of me. I just lay there. He jerked off in front of me. Then he went to the toilet to clean up. Some part of me was relieved. I thought that it is over. But he came back, pushed me down on the bed, got on my back and masturbated on me. By now, I was dead inside. Not a word or cry came out,” she alleged in her Facebook post.
“The Harvey Weinstein incident came to light about a week after this. There was a wave of the MeToo movement in which people were coming out with accounts of sexual harassment. The group of people I was working with in Bengaluru organized a meeting in light of this. I was sitting in this circle. People were sharing. I was nervous. When my turn came, I shared parts of my account. I did not take his name. At the end I changed my mind and put his name out there. My chest filled up with fear. My friends asked me to write about this. I wasn’t sure of reacting then. I was insecure. I did not want to be known for this. I wanted to be known first for my work. It took me a few months to process my feelings. Ere is a screenwriter. He is smart enough to get into somebody else’s shoes and speak from their mouths. So he knew what I was going through when he pushed me down to masturbate on me. He made a choice. At that moment he knew he was the one in power and he chose to abuse that power. I have a feeling that when his film gets selected for gender equality awards, he just sits back and gloats. I am not sure of how many more accolades we need to shower on this,” she concluded.
As her post went viral, Bale Kempa movie was dropped from several cinema festivals including Dharma Shala film festival.
