Director Alleppey Ashraf has questioned Sanalkumar Sasidharan's mental state over his hunger strike demanding a probe into sex racket claims against an unnamed actress.
Filmmaker Sanalkumar Sasidharan has been sitting outside the Kerala Secretariat for days now, on what he calls a hunger strike, with a flex board beside his chair listing three demands. He wants an investigation into an allegation that a well-known Malayalam actress is linked to a sex racket, a probe into what he calls a conspiracy behind a case filed against him, and the release of the Hema Committee report along with a fresh inquiry into the sex racket claims contained in it.
Director Alleppey Ashraf has now weighed in, and not kindly. Ashraf said Sanalkumar's conduct raises doubts about his mental state, and questioned whether someone might be influencing his actions from behind the scenes. He also took aim at cine body AMMA, pointing out that the actress is herself a member and that the organisation has said nothing in her defence even as she's targeted in public.
Ashraf didn't stop at Sanalkumar. He mocked the optics of the protest itself, describing a hunger strike that apparently allows for trips home to bathe, eat, change clothes and return to the chair for conversation with passersby. FEFKA hasn't commented either, according to Ashraf, who called the silence from both bodies proof of how poorly they're run, especially given women hold leadership positions in AMMA.
The dispute between Sanalkumar and the actress isn't new. It goes back to 2019, when she filed a case against him that led to his arrest. Ashraf's point was that this history makes the current protest odd, given how uncomplaining Sanalkumar appears about the person who set that legal process in motion.
The actress hasn't responded publicly to the renewed allegations, and her side of this hasn't been reported here. What has moved is the legal track. Advocate Shanti Mayadevi, herself a writer and actor, has appeared in court on the actress's behalf against Sanalkumar, and her presence has pulled the case further into public view.
None of the three demands on Sanalkumar's flex board have seen government, police or any law enforcement response so far, at least none reported by the sources this account draws on. Whether that's because authorities consider the claims baseless or simply haven't engaged isn't clear from what's been said publicly.
What's clear is that a personal and legal dispute from 2019 has resurfaced as a street protest with serious, unproven claims attached to it, sex racket allegations that remain just that, allegations, and a director's public questioning of another filmmaker's mental health that is itself now part of the story. Neither AMMA nor FEFKA has issued a statement. Whether either does, and whether the authorities Sanalkumar is petitioning respond at all, is the open question hanging over the Secretariat steps right now.
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