Mohanlal, others resign from Kerala actors’ body
AMMA also dissolved the executive committee and said a new panel will be elected within two months to “innovate and strengthen” the film body.
Top Malayalam actor Mohanlal on Tuesday quit as president of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA) and the 17-member executive committee of the influential body also resigned en masse, taking “moral responsibility” after a spate of sexual abuse allegations against male professionals engulfed the Kerala film industry following the Justice Hema Committee report last week.
AMMA also dissolved the executive committee and said a new panel will be elected within two months to “innovate and strengthen” the film body.
According to people aware of the details, the decision on the resignations was taken at a hurriedly convened online meeting by Mohanlal to discuss the unprecedented dilemma being faced by the association amid a barrage of allegations against some of its members and criticisms for failing to act against the accused.
In a statement, AMMA announced the mass resignation of its office-bearers, including president Mohanlal, and said the current administrative panel quit as such, taking “moral responsibility” for the allegations.
“Within two months, a general body will be convened and a new executive committee will be elected. The dissolved committee will act as an ad hoc arrangement to take care of the delivery of monthly pensions and other benefits to elderly members,” the film body said.
“We are optimistic that the new committee will be able to innovate and strengthen AMMA. We thank everyone for criticising us and correcting us,” it added.
The development was welcomed by several actors, especially women.
Actor Shwetha Menon said she welcomed the executive panel’s decision and wished that the “outfit would get new leaders who are capable of continuing its various ongoing programmes”.
Another senior actor, Usha, said AMMA as an outfit was really good, but some of its members on its executive panel were troublemakers.
In its landmark report on the working conditions of women movie professionals in Kerala, which was released on August 19, the Hema Committee said that women artistes and actors were routinely asked for sexual favours in exchange for opportunities, told to compromise, dealt with force exhibited by their male colleagues and threatened with bans if they attempted to sue.
The report was released roughly four-and-a-half years after it was submitted to the Kerala government, and recounted stark revelations about sexual harassment and abuse women faced within the industry, a powerful all-male lobby, unauthorised banning of artistes, poor treatment of junior artistes, and absence of legal remedies to address grievances.
After the report was released, several women actors, including a Bengali actress, went public with allegations of sexual harassment against some of the well-known faces of Malayalam cinema, including director Ranjith and actors Siddique and Mukesh. On Sunday, the Kerala government constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT), comprising top IPS officers, to probe the claims even as Siddique and Ranjith stepped down as AMMA general secretary and Kerala Chalachitra Academy, a state-run institution, respectively.
Joy Mathew, a member of the now-dissolved executive committee of AMMA, said the decision was a unanimous one and taken on “moral grounds”. “We are not resigning from the membership of AMMA and running away from responsibilities. If we continued in those roles, those on the outside would say we are clinging on to power. We don’t want to give that message. We will remain inside AMMA and fight for changes,” Mathew said.
Membership of AMMA ensures health care support, pension, aid for senior artistes, apart from networking within the fraternity.
Following the resignations, the Women in Cinema Collective (WCC), an outfit comprising women actors and technicians on whose demand the Hema Committee was convened by the state government, said on Facebook: “We have a shared duty to forge a future of justice and dignity for everyone... Rethink, reshape, rebuild… Let’s create this new revolution.”
Meanwhile, two women actors, who levelled allegations of sexual abuse against a host of male actors, filed complaints with the SIT probing the matter.
“I spoke to the woman IPS officer leading the probe panel over the phone. She asked me to send the complaints, which I did via email. I have sent seven complaints against actors Mukesh, Jayasurya, Maniyanpilla Raju, Edavela Babu, advocate Chandrasekharan and production controllers Noble and Vichu. It was the Hema committee report that propelled me to come out with my experience,” one of them said.
Actor Mukesh, also a CPI(M) MLA from Kollam, rejected the allegations and said the complainant was trying to “blackmail” him.
He claimed the woman first approached him in 2009 in search for career opportunities in the film industry and even visited his home. After that, she did not appear again until 2022, he said.
“This time, she called me and asked for a huge financial favour. When I said I couldn’t pay, she said she needed only ₹1 lakh. After a few days, a man identifying as her husband called me to ask for money. This group of people, who repeatedly tried to blackmail me, have now smelt an opportunity to attack me. I am revealing this information backed by evidence of the messages she sent me,” he said, stressing that he would welcome any investigation.
Gopi told reporters in Thrissur: “Let the court decide. They (allegations) are the creation of the media. I understand that this issue is your feed on which you are chomping. You can make money off it. But understand that you are upending a big system. The court has the wisdom and the logic to decide on these issues.”
