Parvathy Thiruvothu has made it clear that she continues to stand by her criticism of the misogynistic dialogues in Mammootty’s 2016 film Kasaba, while firmly rejecting attempts to drag filmmaker Geetu Mohandas into a controversy over her past remarks.

In a recent interview with Manorama News, Parvathy said her criticism of Kasaba was, and remains, her personal opinion.

At the same time, she stressed that Geetu Mohandas neither repeated nor endorsed her statement and has every right, as a filmmaker, to choose the stories she wants to tell.

The clarification comes amid attempts to draw a connection between Parvathy’s outspoken criticism of Kasaba and Geetu Mohandas directing Toxic.

For Parvathy, however, there is no contradiction to explain.

She reiterated that her position on Kasaba has not changed. But that does not mean another woman filmmaker must inherit her opinion, repeat her words or make creative decisions based on her politics.

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“Geetu can make whatever film she wants” is essentially the boundary Parvathy draws between personal political criticism and an artist’s creative freedom.

Parvathy also questioned the larger tendency to turn such differences into a supposed conflict between women.

According to her, attempts to connect her past criticism of Kasaba with Geetu Mohandas’ choices as a filmmaker reflect a patriarchal mindset that is always eager to pit women against one another and demand ideological uniformity from them.

In the same round of interviews, Parvathy also spoke candidly about her decision not to return to the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA), describing that chapter of her life as closed.

She said she no longer feels the need to be part of an organisation that, in her view, failed to offer equal support, safety and respect to everyone.

Reflecting on her years of engagement with AMMA and the Women in Cinema Collective (WCC), Parvathy said there was once an effort to initiate conversations and bring about change, but she has now moved beyond that phase.

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She also defended the newer faces in the organisation’s leadership against criticism, pointing out that it is unreasonable to expect people to fix in a few months what previous leaderships failed to address over decades.

Parvathy further spoke about the double standards faced by women in the Malayalam film industry, arguing that men are often given repeated opportunities despite consecutive failures, while women can be pushed aside after just one unsuccessful film.

Having spent nearly two decades in cinema, she said she has also come to realise that the industry’s so-called power groups are not as indispensable as they are often made out to be.