The Activist Star

For Parvathy, choosing the right script goes hand in hand with making the Malayalam film industry a safer place for women.

- Manu Balachandran

ACTOR PARVATHY HAS NEVER shied away from speaking her mind. Growing up, she would often remind her parents to pay attention to her opinions rather than dismissing them as the ramblings of a teenager. Today, the two-time Kerala State Film Award winner for best actress, and a Special Mention awardee in the National Film Awards, hasn’t changed much—she continues to speak her mind, even if it means causing discomfort in certain quarters.

Parvathy, who has predominantly been working in the Malayalam film industry for 12 years, was instrumental in forming an association, a first of its kind in India, the Women in Cinema Collective (WCC) last year, which aims to make the Malayalam film industry more woman-friendly and address gender issues. Alongside, she has also been taking on two of Malayalam film industry’s thespians, Mohanlal and Mammootty, over issues ranging from misogynist dialogues in movies to the lack of definitive action on expelling another superstar, Dileep, from the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA) after he was accused of a conspiracy to rape an actor.

“The film industry is a workplace, and as with any other workplace where there are mechanisms in place to solve problems and ensure a safe environment, we are trying to have the same here too,” Parvathy tells Forbes India.

Born to a lawyer couple, Parvathy studied in Thiruvananthapuram before going on to become a video jockey at Kiran TV, a southern music channel. Her success at hosting shows led her to films; her first movie, Out of Syllabus, released in 2006. Although the film did poorly at the box office, her second film,