Thiruvananthapuram: Moments after a Kerala court acquitted him Monday in the 2017 actress assault case, a confident Dileep came out and trained his guns at the media, police, and even his former wife and actress Manju Warrier, accusing them of conspiring against him to “destroy his life and career”. His fans cheered him as the 58-year-old delivered an emotional speech laced with a strong warning before leaving the court premises.
Just minutes earlier, the actor stood with his head down in the accused box, praying as Judge Honey Varghese was pronouncing the verdict in the packed courtroom at Ernakulam Principal and Sessions Court. As the court acquitted Dileep, dressed in a white shirt with multiple sacred threads on his wrist and neck, and sandal paste on his forehead, the courtroom instantly erupted into gasps and murmurs, before going silent, as the judge pronounced the verdict in its entirety.
The actor’s demeanour after the verdict was in sharp contrast to the subdued but composed Dileep that Kerala has seen over the past eight years, since he was named an accused in the case. Several of his films too did not do well at the box office during this period. Over the years, the actor has been silent and often called himself the victim of a media trial and his haters. But the sudden assertiveness after the verdict Monday reflected his journey from a mimicry artist to one of the prominent figures in the film industry.
Acquitted after eight years, Dileep now looks set to return to the spotlight with a new release. Two days after the verdict, the trailer for his upcoming crime-comedy-action movie Bha Bha Ba—referring to Bhayam, Bhakthi, Bahumanam (fear, devotion, respect)—was released, in which the actor is seen alongside Vineeth Sreenivasan and Dhyan Sreenivasan, with Mohanlal in a cameo role.
A director in the Malayalam film industry, who has worked with him, told ThePrint that Dileep is a highly ambitious but amiable individual. “His growth in the industry was envious when we look at it. I felt like he was more of a businessman than an artist,” said the director, who requested anonymity.
Dileep was arrested in July 2017 in connection with a case in which one of his colleagues in the industry was abducted and raped in a moving car along the national highway in Kochi in February that year. Police arrested the main accused, M.S. Sunil, aka Pulsar Suni, and the probe eventually then led them to Dileep, who was suspected of allegedly masterminding the gang rape out of personal enmity towards the survivor for revealing his “extramarital affair” to his former wife and actress Manju Warrier. The arrest of the popular actor, once among the power centres in Malayalam cinema, divided Kerala society and politics.
Many in the Malayalam film fraternity, who had announced their unequivocal support for the survivor, marched to support him, while many openly rebelled against this. It led to the formation of Women in Cinema Collective (WCC), an association of women actors who broke away from Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA), which supported Dileep.
Similarly, after the acquittal, the actor got endorsements from several leading industry figures. Many political leaders from the opposition Congress and the BJP in the state also came out in support. The LDF government, meanwhile, said it would appeal the verdict.
“Dileep is a hundred percent guilty. There is evidence of that. Whether the court accepted it or not is another thing,” advocate T.B. Mini, the survivor’s lawyer, told the media Friday. She added that she was facing attacks on social media and also by some YouTube channels.
On Friday, a court sentenced six accused to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment in the case.
Arrest & bail
“More than the news that it happened to an actor, it pains to hear the fact that it happened in God’s own Kerala,” Dileep said in Kochi in February 2017. The actor was speaking at a public gathering organised by the Malayalam film industry to pledge solidarity with the actress who was abducted and raped in a moving car on 17 February. Sharing a stage with prominent figures including Mammootty, Innocent, and director Kamal, Dileep pledged full support for the survivor, who was once called one of his “lucky heroines”.
Over the next few months, the Kerala Police made multiple arrests in the case, including Pulsar Suni. Suni sexually abused the actress in the moving vehicle, with the help of five others, and recorded the incident. Suni was arrested within days, and the case eventually led to the arrest of Dileep on account of photographic evidence that surfaced showing his acquaintance with Suni, and also a letter allegedly written by Suni from jail seeking money.
Many in the Malayalam film industry also told police initially they were aware of Dileep’s enmity towards the survivor. However, 28 of them changed their statements during the trial, eventually weakening the prosecution’s allegation of conspiracy.
According to court records, the prosecution alleged that Dileep offered Suni Rs 1.5 crore, of which Rs 10,000 was paid as an advance before the crime.
Dileep was arrested in July 2017 and lodged in the Aluva Central Jail for nearly three months. He was released on bail 85 days later to a cheering crowd outside the prison, holding flex boards, after the Kerala High Court granted him bail on 3 October, 2017.
The actor, his hand folded, waved at the crowd before leaving the Aluva prison complex to the sound of firecrackers.
The bail plea was his third; both of his earlier pleas had been dismissed by the court, which noted that there was enough evidence to suspect his involvement in the crime. The court also noted that Dileep, being a prominent actor, distributor, producer, and theatre owner, could influence or threaten the witnesses, most of whom were from the same industry.
However, during his third bail plea hearing, the court noted that there was a change in circumstances as the investigation was nearing completion.
From artist to businessman
Known by his stage name Dileep, the actor’s real name is Gopalakrishnan Padmanabhan.
The Ernakulam native began his career as a mimicry artist in a popular drama troupe, Harisree, in the early 90s. This helped him enter the film industry as an assistant director to Malayalam director Kamal. In 1992, Dileep made his acting debut as a supporting actor in Kamal’s Ennodishtam Koodamo. Later, he started appearing on TV comedy shows.
Dileep was ambitious, enthusiastic, and a fast learner who entertained others on film sets, said the director quoted earlier.
Later, Dileep played several supporting roles alongside cinema’s bigwigs and leading roles as a boy-next-door in comedy and family dramas. During this time, he also shared the screen multiple times with prominent actress Manju Warrier, who he married in 1998.
By the 2000s, Dileep had established himself as one of the bankable faces in the industry with hit slapstick comedies including Ee Parakkum Thalika (2001), Kalyanaraman (2002), Meesha Madhavan (2002), Kunjikkoonan (2002), and C.I.D. Moosa (2003).
The actor also ventured into production during this time.
The director quoted earlier said Dileep never tried to compete with big names such as Mammootty, Mohanlal, Suresh Gopi, or Jayaram, who dominated the industry at the time. Instead, he maintained a competitive mindset towards actors of his age group.
He added that Dileep also started marketing himself at that time, which was something nobody else was doing, which earned him the moniker of “star”. “Once he became a star, he slowly started interfering in everything, even with directors—something even Mohanlal or Mammootty didn’t do at that time. He also became very superstitious and even cut actors out of movies if he thought they were bad luck,” the director said.
He said the actor saw films as more of a business, a perspective later adopted by many others in the industry, which changed the industry’s approach to filmmaking.
By 2010, Dileep had become a powerful figure in Malayalam cinema with a production house, theatre complex, and restaurant chain in Kerala and abroad named Dhe Puttu.
In 2017, he was the treasurer of AMMA and founding president of the Film Exhibitors United Organisation of Kerala (FEUOK). The director said many rifts in the Malayalam film industry associations could be traced to Dileep during this time. “When the Hema Committee mentioned the power group in the industry, it’s this. With or without their knowledge, the industry was shrinking to a few individuals, including Dileep.”
This power dynamic, the director said, reduced support for the survivor within the industry.
Also Read: Hema Committee is a start. How many reports, careers, lives before we see real change?
‘Cooked up a fake story’
“Whatever people say about me, there is an audience who held my hand throughout this journey. They believe in me,” Dileep said eight years ago in an interview with Malayalam news channel Manorama, considered his first after the controversy. The actor was calm and composed in the interview, in contrast to his typically cheerful and jovial manner. He went on to say that he was a victim of a media trial and public scrutiny that villainised him.
He said that his decision to marry actress Kavya Madhavan in 2016 was made for his daughter, who was a teenager then. Dileep and Manju Warrier had divorced a year before.
The interview was conducted at a time when his films were doing poorly at the box office.
Since 2017, he has starred in 15 movies, most of which stuck to his tried-and-tested format of slapstick comedies but none of them made it big on the box office. The actor maintained this demeanour in his media presence and all public interactions till his bail.
“The investigation against me started when Manju (Warrier) said there was a criminal conspiracy in this case. A high-ranking police official and some other officers stood with it,” Dileep said immediately after the verdict.
“They joined hands with the main accused and some media, cooked up a fake story and spread it on social media. This story was destroyed in the court today,” he added.
Division in the film industry & beyond
The 2017 case divided the Malayalam film industry and society significantly, even entering the political sphere. Soon after his acquittal, Dileep got support from organisations, including the AMMA, which issued a statement saying they would respect the court verdict.
Dileep had been expelled from the organisation’s primary membership and treasurer post after his arrest in 2017.
The actor also got verbal endorsement from leading figures in the industry such as Renji Panicker and AMMA functionary Lakshmipriya.
Reacting to this, Bhagyalakshmi, a dubbing artist and actor, resigned from the Film Employees Federation of Kerala (FEFKA), protesting the hasty arrangements in various organisations to bring Dileep back. Similarly, the WCC, the association of women actors who broke away from AMMA, and many activists and members of the public issued social media statements with the hashtag #Avalkoppam (with her).
The division was not just limited to cinema.
Soon after the verdict, the LDF-led state government announced its unequivocal support for the survivor. Law Minister P. Rajeev said the prosecution would go for an appeal.
However, the actor got support from multiple quarters in the BJP and Congress. While the Congress said it stands with the survivor, Congress MP Adoor Prakash said Dileep got justice in the case. “Even while saying that we are all with the survivor, we must also recognise that everyone deserves justice and that Dileep has got justice,” Adoor Prakash said Tuesday, as polling was underway for the first phase of local body polls.
“He (Dileep) is not only an artist for me. I have a personal relationship with him. He has got justice. The court has delivered justice for him,” Prakash added.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
Also Read: Hema Committee report took 5 yrs to come out. Telugu film industry’s version still under wraps