MeToo: "Susi Ganesan misbehaved with me" - Leena Manimekalai

The #MeToo movement in the south media industry is reaching a feverish pitch as each day celebrity after celebrity is accused of sexual harassment.

Adding to the movement's rising strength, poet-writer-and-screenwriter Leena Manimekalai has accused ace director Susi Ganesan of sexually harassing her.

She said that she had to interview the actor in 2005 which went past 9:30 in the night. She alleged that the director came in his car and offered to drop her home when she was about to hire an auto which she accepted.

"After sometime into the journey the director's tone changed.  He locked all the doors of the car.  He snatched my phone, switched off and threw it somewhere inside the car. He threatened me to go with him to the apartment. I pleaded him to leave me. But he didn't budge. Finally a small knife that I have always kept with me since my college days came to the rescue.  He finally dropped me at my house. The journey to my house doesn't take more than 20 minutes, but the car went through all the lanes and by-lanes and I reached home only after 45 minutes," she said in her post.

Posting her agonising moment on her Facebook page she said, "I couldn't talk about this then as I was new to journalism.  He was a famous and influential director on the other hand. I was scared that he would soil my reputation if I talk about him. I was also scared of my parents as they wouldn't have allowed me to continue my career."

She also said, even the thought of the moment gave her shivers. The #MeToo movement began in the south media industry with singer Chinmayi accusing Poet Vairamuthu for sexually harassing her and it has now come to ace director Susi Ganesan.