Reminiscent of the incident when actor Anaswara Rajan was bullied for posting a photo where she was wearing shorts, actor-producer Rima Kallingal is being targeted by moral police for wearing a skirt while attending the Regional International Film Festival (RIFFK). The trolls claimed that her attire was not suitable for a podium where the important topic was being discussed — the need for an Internal Complaints Committee in cinema to prevent sexual abuse at the workplace.
What happened
Rima was one of the panelists in the open forum conducted as a part of the film festival, which was held at Kochi from April 1 to April 5. Advocate and social activist Maya Krishnan, actor Santhosh Keezhatoor, Producers Association member Anil Thomas, social worker and activist Rekha Raj, Chalachitra Academy vice chairman Premkumar, and producer Vishnu also participated in the discussion. Rima spoke about how many women working in the industry don’t even know what amounts to sexual harassment and it’s important that all associations in the film industry should start to sensitize them. She attended the open forum wearing a denim mini skirt and a white shirt, which invited bullying online. Some of the comments read: “How can one talk about social decency by showing thighs on a public platform?”, “She is giving lecture. See her dressing? What a disaster.” “someone cover her legs with a cloth”, “first learn how to dress decently in a public platform”.
How Rima responded
Rima shrugged off thr trolling. “I don’t pay any heed to what they say. It doesn’t matter to me. I have a lot of other important things to do,” she said as many celebs supported her. Anchor and actor Ranjini Haridas posted a picture on her Instagram account in which she’s wearing a mini skirt. Young actor Anaswara Rajan also came up with an Instagram story posting Rima’s picture from RIFFK, and so did singer Sayanora Philip. Many women on social media followed suit and shared their photos with the hashtag, ‘we have legs’.
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