Actor Dileep's arrest trains light on dark underbelly of Malayalam cinema

The arrest of popular Malayalam star Dileep may have just trained lights on the dark underbelly of the Malayalam film industry of which he has been practically the lord of all that he surveyed.

Dileep was picked up after the Kerala police cracked a four-month-old case of abduction and sexual harassment of a co-actor with whom he had nursed an entrenched sense of personal enmity.

HUGE STAR APPEAL

The Malayalam film industry measures up to one-tenth the size of the its Tamil or Telugu peers in South India but had banked heavily on the star appeal and entrepreneurial acumen of Dileep.

He might have been the third in the pecking order of remuneration after the highly-acclaimed Mohanlal or Mammootty but had come to be recognised as the industry's most bankable star otherwise.

His successful ventures into film distribution, production and exhibition had made him the most influential personality around whom the entire industry had come to rally round.

The fact that he would leverage this position to have his way with a female colleague 'in the most reprehensible manner ever conceivable' came as a shocker to the average cinema goer.

DIVORCE, AND AFTER

But it turns out not all in the industry was surprised since his escapades with another co-actor and current spouse had led to a divorce leaving a daughter from the first marriage under his care.

It is learnt that the actor who was abducted and harassed had revealed to the divorcee about Dileep's links with his current spouse and insisted that she file for divorce, much against his wishes.

This, Dileep reportedly confided to the police, had enraged him no end that he used his influence to deny this co-actor anymore opportunities in and force her ouster from from Malayalam cinema.

He had assigned henchman Sunil Kumar, also known as Pulsar Suni, to 'fix' her in a daring operation on February 17 when she was waylaid while travelling alone.

METICULOUS JOB

The victim made bold to report the case the same morning to the police and pursue it with vigour.

This is what is widely believed to have led to Dileep's arrest, for which she is being widely feted now.

The Kerala police did a meticulous job, fighting off huge challenges and staking its reputation to follow up and make a neat job of it at the end of four months.

Cinema goers are shocked that AMMA, the movie actors collective, has not uttered a word in reaction to the arrest of Dileep, a pointer to the influence he commanded in the industry.

The police are standing guard to his properties that includes restaurants and a theater, after protesters targeted their ire against some of them last night.

It now turns that Dileep had served the 'quotation' to Pulsar Suni in 2013 itself but the latter could not succeed in previous plots hatched in Kerala and outside.

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