India, Dec. 10 -- The 2017 case involving the abduction and gangrape of an actress shook up Kerala because of its links to multiple cinema stars, especially Dileep, a top actor, who was also influential as a producer, distributor, and theatre-owner. The victim of the assault, too, was an A-list actress, and so were two others linked to the case, Dileep's current wife, Kavya Madhavan, and his ex-wife, Manju Warrier, whom he held responsible for his arrest in his first remarks after a local court in Kerala acquitted him on Monday. Though the court convicted the first six accused, there is lack of closure for the victim because the prosecution failed to establish any conspiracy behind the assault: The abduction and assault of the actress by a bunch of people linked to the film industry had raised questions about their motive and if they acted at the behest of others with economic might and political connections. A significant outcome of the case was that it initiated a conversation about the underbelly of the Malayalam film industry, with implications for work relations in other language cinemas as well. Four top actresses walked out of a powerful forum of film artists, AMMA, in an act of solidarity with the victim, which led to the formation of the Women in Cinema Collective (WCC), a first-of-its-kind platform in India, to articulate the concerns of female workers. The WCC soon emerged as a moral voice and was successful in forcing the government to acknowledge the absence of basic work norms, including adherence to the Vishaka guidelines on sexual harassment, in the industry. The government set up the Justice Hema Commission to probe complaints by female artistes, but it yielded little as powerful vested interests in the cinema industry closed ranks against providing redress or acknowledging the anti-women attitudes that define its work culture. Independent of the developments in the present case - the government is set to appeal against the order - the conversation on gender rights in the film industry must continue, and not merely in Malayalam cinema, but across the many regional cinema worlds in India....