Covid lockdowns were just being lifted when Anuja* moved to Kochi with aspirations of writing and eventually directing films. She came to work in Malayalam cinema a few years after the arrest of actor Dileep for allegedly orchestrating the sexual assault of a female colleague in 2017. The problems in the industry had been quite exposed by then and she only approached younger, seemingly progressive people for work. “I thought such spaces would be safer. But over three years have passed now and my guard has only gone further up, irrespective of the circle I work in,” she told The News Minute.
