#MeToo: Photographer Pretika accuses Thiagarajan of harassment

Last week, photographer Pretika Menon had shared her #MeToo story on Facebook, in which she called out senior actor-director Thiagarajan of harassing her when she worked as a photographer documenting the behind-the-scenes work on Ponnar Sankar, a film that he directed and which starred his son, Prashanth. Her post read, “On my first day Prashanth met me and introduced me to his father, the director. They were both extremely nice to me and treated me as a part of the main crew. Over the next couple of days Thyagarajan would keep finding me on set and urging me to be near him, he started to tell me about his Thai masseuse girls and how wonderful they were. He insinuate that he was sleeping with them. I asked him if his wife didn’t mind.. And he told me that his wife and daughter had no clue. Then I asked him if he’d be okay if they had similar experiences. Thyagarajan said that if his wife or daughter ever did something like that he would kill them himself. I was worried to be around someone like that, especially since I really just talk my mind without giving two sh**s.” (sic)On the third day, wrote Pretika, “I started to catch a cold and he told me that he never allows a sick person on his set as I may spread it. When I asked him if I should leave he left me alone. At dinner he found me and told me to meet him and take medicine and brandy with hot water from him. I politely refused but he again told me he didn’t want me to spread my sickness. After dinner I went to my room and locked myself in, without meeting him. I was really glad to have avoided him cause there was no way in hell I was accepting any drugs from him nor having a drink around him. At 12 am I heard a knock on my door and I freaked the f**k out. There was nothing separating the monster from me other than a plywood door, and I was in the middle of nowhere surrounded by I think 300 or more men, men who all slaved over him and did his every command. I called a friend and told him of the knock, and what had been happening. My friend told me to keep talking to him and not to open the door. I spoke in a loud voice to my friend, as if nothing happened, hoping to let whomever was behind the door know that I was chatting with someone on the outside. I heard a knock on my door twice after that, once at 2 am and once at 4 am. I was scared for my life and my body. My friend stayed on call with me throughout, I refused to sleep that night until 6am when I drifted to sleep till 8 am when breakfast would start and we had to be on set.” (sic) Pretika added that she informed Prashanth she wanted to leave the next day, and he agreed, but they did not pay her for the work she had done. Terming Pretika’s accusations “false and wrong”, Thiagarajan says, “The girl mentions that we were shooting in a Fort set near Coimbatore, but we were actually shooting in a real fort called Rajangudi Fort in Perambalur near Trichy, and the shoot used to start at 6pm and go on till 5am the next morning. How would I have gone to her room if the shoot was going on through the night? And we had separate rooms. Many women were staying along with her. So, there is no chance of any misbehaviour.”He claims that Pretika and he did not have any proper interaction given the “stressful conditions” of the shoot. “The sequence involved a battle comprising about 200 soldiers. It is not easy to shoot such a sequence, especially because we were not going for graphics. Actors like Nasser sir, Ponvannan, Lakshmy Ramakrishnan and Riyaz Khan were part of it. Two former Miss Indias played the heroines. We had about 50 makeup persons and 100 costumers on set. Ravi Dewar, a stunt master from Mumbai, had choreographed the scene, and he had brought along with him 50 fighters. There were 50 fighters whom we’d roped in locally. The scene involved Prashanth rescuing the two heroines from the fort, climbing down a rope from about 200 feet. It was such a risky scene. I was working under severe stress, so it was not possible to interact properly with anyone. Setting up the formation itself would drain you. And as it was a war scene, we had brought in cameras from Australia, and there was the foreign crew as well. And adhu oru saamiyaar company… yaarum cigarette kudikka mudiyathu edhuvum panna mudiyathu,” he says. He says that they had taken Pretika as a trainee following the request of another photographer. “She had completed a photography course just then. We took her to the set for three days. I don’t want to speak ill about the girl, but we weren’t happy with her, so we asked her to leave on the fourth day. Prashanth had brought her on board, so I spoke to him and we sent her off after paying her. But she took all the material she’d shot during the shoot with her. We haven’t been in touch with her after that. We do not know of her whereabouts. I’m trying to find out her address to send the legal notice,” he says.The actor-director had gone to the commissioner’s office on Monday morning to discuss the case, but hadn’t filed a complaint then. He reveals, “I haven’t given a complaint yet, but we will be lodging one after the press meet (scheduled in the evening). I need to prepare my case and that’s what I’ve been doing since morning.”Pretika couldn’t be reached for a comment on Thiagarajan’s threat of legal action till the time of going to print.TOI's policy on covering #MeToo