A casting director has accused Malayalam actor Mukesh of calling her hotel room multiple times and even getting it changed so she could be in the one next to his, saying the harassment nearly two decades ago forced her to fly out.

Tess Joseph said the harassment took place at a Chennai hotel when Mukesh, a CPM MLA, was hosting Ningalkkum Akam Koteeshwaran (you can become a millionaire), the Malayalam version of Who Wants to Be A Millionaire.

In a tweet on Tuesday she said she had flown out of Chennai with the help of Derek O’Brien, now a Trinamul MP.

Mukesh, 62, played down the allegation in a brief reaction with a Malayalam channel. “I don’t remember any such incident and I don’t know her. Anyone can accuse anyone,” the actor, an influential figure in the Malayalam film industry and its trade body, the Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes, said.

Mukesh had been chosen as the host for the Malayalam version of the popular American TV show, which landed in India in the form of Kaun Banega Crorepati that Amitabh Bachchan had hosted and has since been produced in various state languages.

Tess’s #MeToo tweet comes at a time quite a few women in India have accused influential men of sexual harassment.

“I was 20 years old quiz directing #koteeswaran when the mallu host #mukeshkumar called my room multiple times and then changed my room to beside his on the next sch. My then boss @derekobrienmp spoke to me for an hour & got me out on the next flight. 19 yrs on thank you Derek,” she tweeted.

Her Facebook profile describes her as the India casting director of Hollywood movies, Lion and The Darjeeling Limited, and a former head of TV and production at Derek O’Brien & Associates.

When a person named Suresh Mathew responded by asking whether she actually meant Malayalam actor Mukesh, she responded with a smiling picture of the actor and commented: “Yes it is. Mukesh Kumar actor/politician.”

In a follow-up Tweet, Tess wrote: “I was the only woman in a crew of men. One night when the calls where never ending, I stayed in my colleague(’s) room.”

She also accused the Chennai hotel of being the “worst… enablers”, saying when she had asked why her room was changed, she was “nonchalantly” told that “Mr Mukesh asked for it”.

Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, state unit secretary of the ruling CPM, merely said: “Let the law takes its course.”

As the Youth Congress and the BJP seized the opportunity and marched to Mukesh’s house in Kollam demanding his resignation, Tess told a Malayalam channel “politicisation of this thing is wrong”.

Mukesh, son of legendary theatre personality O. Madhavan, had made his film debut in 1982 and has since been noted for comedy and character roles.

In 1988 he married critically acclaimed actress Saritha who debuted with Kamal Haasan in K. Balachander’s 1978 Telugu blockbuster Maro Charitra, which he remade in Hindi as Ek Duuje Ke Liye three years later.

The couple separated later and Saritha publicly shamed him for having affairs with other women. Saritha had even threatened to sue him for bigamy after he married classical dancer Methil Devika in 2013.