Though Vairamuthu took his time to react publicly to these allegations, he did visit senior lawyers in the aftermath of #MeToo. Sources in the legal profession in Chennai told me that in one such meeting Vairamuthu was with one of his sons. He and the son at this consultation slut-shamed Chinmayi and spoke about how ‘these women’ are and something to the effect of: ‘They bite the very hand that feeds them’.

Vairamuthu also put out a video statement in which he said, “I have been compiling unshakeable evidence of my innocence. I have consulted many senior lawyers about this. All the accusations against me are completely false. If those who made the accusations believe them to be true, they can file a case against me. Let the courts decide if I am a good man or a bad man. I bow down to the power of the courts and am sure they will bring me justice.”

Mani Ratnam, AR Rahman, and Vairamuthu at the ‘Chekka Chivantha Vaanam’ audio launch

Our conversation then veers towards Mani Ratnam, when Chinmayi says, “During Mani Ratnam’s last film, Chekka Chivantha Vaanam’s audio release event, I told everyone ‘I will not call Vairamuthu to the stage. I will not praise him…’ I said this so many times that people wondered if something was wrong with me. Then Mani Ratnam called me aside and asked, ‘You look disturbed Chinmayi, is everything ok?’ I said to him, ‘I just have a resting bitch face don’t worry‘ and he laughed. That day I didn’t want to talk about it. I was invited to host the event because Mani sir said he wanted somebody who wouldn’t be fawning all over these celebrities. He wanted someone who would treat them as professionals. I told [playback singer] Karthik, who was hosting the event with me then, that this man molested me. ‘You have a daughter who’s 12, I am sure you’ll understand’. He said, ‘Ayyayoo don’t tell me all this‘. He said he couldn’t do the one Tamil line – Kavipperarasu Vairamuthu ayya avargalai medaikku azhaikkirom, to invite Vairmathu on to the stage. I should have said no and not done it or stayed silent. I thought it’s my job, so I invited him to the stage.”

Chinmayi remembers something else through the course of this conversation. She recalls a phone call: “A day after I tweeted my story, I got a call from someone in Mani Ratnam’s office asking if I could come to a compromise. I asked, ‘What are you saying?’ Then I thought let me give them the benefit of doubt and asked again, ‘Does Mani Ratnam know what he’s asking me to compromise for?’ Their answer was, ‘I don’t know. Vairamuthu called Mani Ratnam. I am only relaying the message.’ I said to them, ‘Please ask him to read the news, and then decide whether he wants to be a part of this compromise business’. After an hour or two, they called back, livid. They said, ‘My blood is boiling that he would involve Mani Ratnam in something like this. He [Mani Ratnam] only asked you to be careful. We are with you.”

The October of 2018, and exactly a year before that in 2017, when Raya Sarkar published the LoSHA outing predators in academia, the collective anger that seemed to be simmering against abuse, had its big moment on Indian social media, as women raged against indignities. A lot of us have had the luxury of moving on since. Not Chinmayi. She continues to be in that space because people continue to come to her to out other men. There are also those that continue to charge at her with righteous anger for daring to speak and just not ‘shutting up’.

“It hasn’t made me angry. At that point I was, but I was very quick to take help. I took different forms of therapy. I took traditional therapy, where I was talking to a counsellor as well,” she says.

As we wrap up, Chinmayi says, about that infamous interview with Rangaraj Pandey, “As a journalist what did he do to question the aggressor? What did he do to question the system, asking ‘Where is the investigation?’ He could have done that.” She also recalls another Polimer TV journalist telling her that it was because of ‘women like her’ that other ‘real, truthful women’, whatever that means, did not get justice.

***

Following Chinmayi, two other women came out in public to not only back her up but also to talk about their own ordeal.

One of them was Bhuvana Seshan. She gave a Tamil web portal a candid video interview in which she spoke about his toxicity. She also penned an eloquently detailed piece about it for The Quint.

Bhuvana knew Vairamuthu through work, and initially, he spoke to her on the phone about ‘harmless things’. Bhuvana writes in her piece, “One day, he told me that not only do I have a great voice, but I am also an intelligent woman. Oru arivupoorvamana pennai naan thedik kondirundhen. En thedal unnil mudindhuvidumo?” (I was searching for an intelligent, attractive woman. Will my search end with you?). I told him I was uncomfortable. The next day, he called again. He told me he would be going to Malaysia the following week and asked if I wanted to join. I said, “Do you want me for singing or anchoring?” He said, “Neither.”.” When she stood her ground and said no, he issued a threat: “You will cease to exist in this industry. I will shut all doors for you. Do you know what my influence is in this industry? I can reduce you to nothing.”

“Subsequently,” she wrote, “I lost three trips abroad and some recording opportunities… I sulked for a week but then got up to move on–but I decided I would never pursue playback singing.”

Over a year after all this, Bhuvana talks to me about how she feels: “It is really frustrating. The way this industry has remained indifferent to the whole thing. No one addressed anything. What is more frustrating is seeing Vairamuthu walking with his head held high. But isn’t victim-shaming our specialty?”

She adds, “Initially I had no idea of coming out. But when I saw insults and derogatory terms thrown at Chinmayi I was really upset. I know what Vairamuthu is. The way people were defending him and shaming Chinmayi upset me. Chinmayi is much younger than me. When I saw the way she stood her ground and took so much nonsense, I was ashamed of myself and angry with myself. That’s when I decided to step in. I just couldn’t see that girl fighting all alone. The consequences were mixed. Some stood by me; some ridiculed me. People said since I didn’t make it big in the music industry, I was trying some attention-grabbing … One called me an owl… One guy said that I am a grandma who still thinks she looks good. But I learnt something from this. I learnt that this society is a disgusting mix of toilet and garbage with some deodorant sprayed here and there. I learnt that here money, power, fame, and clout speak.”

Bhuvana wishes for “a world in which a victim walks with her head held high.” She says, “I wish to see a world where people don’t sit on a throne and pass judgments on women. I wish this industry would look into this and establish a platform where women can come and share their stories. What people fail to realise is that however old you become, the pain remains, with the same intensity. I can never forgive Vairamuthu. I wish he could be pulled up and at least interrogated. I know he can never be convicted because we have no evidence of anything. But he should at least go through some humiliation for inflicting so much pain on so many women. This eerie silence must give way to real voices.”

***

US-based musician Sindhuja Rajaram also publicly supported Chinmayi. When she was 18, Sindhuja, who’s in her thirties now, visited Vairamuthu with her mother to see if she could join his hostel. Vairamuthu runs the Thaai women’s hostel in Chennai. Most women’s hostels in the city have curfews and enforce them very strictly. Sindhuja worked in the film industry then, as a sound engineer, and couldn’t adhere to these curfews. Her mother thought since Vairamuthu was from the industry, he would understand.

In an interview with Scroll.in, on October 14, 2018, Sindhuja said, “I had taken along my demo CD containing songs I had composed and programmed. He was so impressed he said he would love to take me to AR Rahman… He took my number and said he would keep in touch… A week later… Vairamuthu called, asking me to get over to Rahman’s office… The meeting with Rahman was brief. Vairamuthu called me again the following day and told me how impressed Rahman had been with me. A few weeks later, he started calling frequently to ask how I was doing. He would ask about my work and tell me, “Let’s meet sometime.” I would say “sure” and end the call. Then his calls became desperate. I would only answer out of respect for the man. One time, he said, “When do we meet? I miss you. I have written poems about you, please come meet me at my Besant Nagar office.” I felt awkward; I said I had to get back to work and hung up. His next call was even more desperate. He said he was falling in love with me, that he was constantly thinking about me. That is when I said, “Sir you are like my father. I have great respect for you. Please do not say such things. I feel very awkward”.” Sindhuja eventually stopped taking his calls.

When I speak to Sindhuja in 2020, to ask why she decided to publicly back Chinmayi, considering the kind of harsh reaction the singer was subjected to, she says, “When I first heard about it, I wasn’t surprised as you may have heard that it’s the industry’s open secret. I was really happy someone, especially like Chinmayi, addressed it. Initially sharing anonymous people’s stories and then her own. At that time, it was almost 15 years later, I had moved on not just from the “episodes” but also the music industry. But when the public never believed anyone or Chinmayi I felt that it was so wrong and decided to back her. I’ve been in a very similar place and that I totally believe what everyone was saying.”

I ask her what the consequences have been and she says, “Not as much as it was for Chinmayi who was tweeting and giving interviews and having to deal with all the name-calling. I gave my video interview and then my life was normal again. There were comments on Youtube about my current appearance. I was called a “cow face” and many did not want to believe that Mr. Vairamuthu approached a “cow face”,” she says and adds, “But other than this, nothing.”

On the accusation that Vairamuthu uses others’ names, especially of AR Rahman’s as an excuse to talk to women or hold that out like a prize, Sindhuja says, “Well in my case he really did help me meet with Mr. Rahman and fortunately also within a couple of days after my meeting with Mr. Vairamuthu himself. The calls and flirting started a few weeks later, which initially I tried to politely disagree with, then I avoided his calls. It is very unfortunate that this has been taken very lightly and is accepted as the “culture” of the industry until the #MeToo movement. The predator was not just Mr. Vairamuthu but many other music directors, producers, directors, and, actors. For me, Mr. Vairamuthu was certainly not the first or last.” She also points out that “many media folks called my episode with Mr. Vairamuthu harassment. I would like to say that he was making an obscene approach just like the other industry men. He did not threaten me with an “or else”. He tried his best but I just avoided him”.

That someone with this reputation continues to run a women’s hostel is cause for concern. Multiple anonymous accounts on the Internet say Vairamuthu abused his position as the owner of a hostel and as an influential poet to molest women who came to live there. In an interview with The Hindu about his hostel, Vairamuthu said in 2003, “Our aim is to provide healthy food and protection to women, and most importantly, create an ambience that feels like home.” On October 9, 2018, one accusation against Vairamuthu read, “My friend lives in the Vairamuthu hostel in Kodambakkam, and a lot of girls there have told stories of him trying to exploit them whenever he visits the hostel.”

***

Musician AR Reihana (AR Rahman’s sister) publicly acknowledged that Vairamuthu is a predator in an interview with News7 Tamil following #MeToo. “I believe what Chinmayi is saying because two-three people have told me about this,” she said about four and a half minutes into the interview.

Hayma Malini, who is also popular playback singer late Malaysia Vasudevan’s daughter-in-law, was among the earliest to publicly come out in Chinmayi’s support. “I don’t believe how the Tamil film fraternity is not standing by Chinmayi! Why question Chinmayi not reporting the incident ten years ago! There is a report now and that should be dealt with! Why are we not questioning Vairamuthu? Why is society questioning the victim and not the perpetrator? What a patriarchal industry? When I was in Sun Music, I have personally witnessed Vairamuthu trying to get fresh with one of the young presenters… And I have spoken about him in many stages more than 10 years ago! I salute Chinmayi for being the voice of many voiceless! Time for some introspection by the industry(sic),” she wrote on Facebook.

***

Nothing has changed since October 2018. There is still no ICC (Internal Complaints Committee) in the Tamil film industry, despite one of the biggest actresses of the day, Nayantara asking for one. Legally speaking, production houses should have ICCs and all complaints regarding their movies must be investigated by them. No responsible body–writers union, dubbing union, producers council–has initiated an enquiry against Vairamuthu over multiple allegations that continue to tumble out.

However, the one big outcome of these women’s testimonies is that it is no longer a whisper network that warns women about the likes of Vairamuthu. A source in the industry also pointed out that there is some hesitation to work with him now, though his work hasn’t all dried up.

Earlier in the year, it was speculated that Vairamuthu was no longer part of Mani Ratnam’s magnum opus Ponniyin Selvan. Sources in the know confirmed to me that he has, in fact, been dropped from the project. When he was named in #MeToo, the director was reportedly shocked.

The crew of Ponnoyin Selvan initially tried other writers for the songs. However, nothing satisfactory came of it. The director wanted to see if he could ‘try’ things out with Vairamuthu. A call went out to the lyricist and he was given a brief for one song. The next day Vairamuthu released a statement to the press claiming he was working on Ponniyin Selvan and that he was writing all 12 songs. He did this without an official go-ahead from the production, or any papers being signed. At that point, the filmmaker hadn’t even decided if there were going to be 12 songs in the film. Vairamuthu’s statement led to a severe backlash against the film on the internet.

Finally, it was this backlash that led to the dropping of Vairamuthu’s name from Ponniyin Selvan.

***

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Chinmayi’s voice that remained stifled by an industry that sought to punish her for speaking out, echoed across homes recently as Jyothika starrer Ponmagal Vandhal hit OTT platform, Amazon Prime. It’s only fitting that her ‘comeback’ song featured in a film in which the protagonist, Venba (Jyothika) says to a male lawyer, “Why does it always sound like a lie to you when a woman talks about abuse?”

***

As I wrap this piece up, in late May 2020, the ‘first look’ poster and teaser video for a new film, Ka Pae Ranasignam starring Vijay Sethupathi and Aishwarya Rajesh, are released. They carry Vairamuthu’s name in bold, right below that of the movie’s director’s (P Virumandi). Next to that of the music director’s (Ghibran). This time there isn’t even a murmur against his name featuring so prominently.

The more things change, etc.