Padmapriya Recounts 'Awful' Incident, Alleges Tamil Filmmaker Slapped Her Publicly

Padmapriya Janakiraman, who predominantly works in the Malayalam film industry and starred in the Bollywood movie Chef, shared an ordeal of being slapped by a Tamil filmmaker on the sets. The actress was addressing an audience at an event in Kozhikode on Tuesday where she didn't name the filmmaker and just talked about the incident.

Padmapriya opens up about being slapped by a Tamil filmmaker

During an event, the actress shared that after the completion of the filming, a Tamil filmmaker slapped her in front of everyone. She added that instead of calling out the filmmaker, the media reports blamed her. She alleged that reports falsely claimed that she had slapped the director and no one questioned why she complained to the film associations. Following the incident, the filmmaker was barred from filming for 6 months by the film industry.

She further mentioned that this incident reflects a broader issue where women's experiences are often misrepresented or dismissed. The actress revealed that after the incident she stopped accepting roles from the Tamil film industry. The Tamil filmmaker has also worked in several Malayalam movies, she stated.

Her comments have come in the wake of growing scrutiny in the film industry owing to the mistreatment of female artists after the Hema Committee Report was publically released.

What do we know about Padmapriya?

The actress made her acting debut in the 2004 Telugu film Seenu Vasanthi Lakshmi, a remake of the Malayalam film Vasanthiyum Lakshmiyum Pinne Njaanum. In 2005, she made her debut in the Tamil film industry with Thavamai Thavamirundhu. Since then, she has done several movies, including Veeralipattu, Satham Podathey and Irumbukkottai Murattu Singam. She was last seen in an English-language movie Wonder Woman, directed by Anjali Menon. It also stars  Nadiya Moidu, Nithya Menen, Parvathy Thiruvothu, Sayanora Philip, Archana Padmini and Amruta Subhash in the lead roles. The actress is yet to announce her next movie.