Hectic parleys begins as new AMMA office bearers to be elected on Aug 15

Kochi, July 19 (IANS) Ever since the explosive Hema Committee report surfaced last year, the affairs in the Malayalam film actors body -- Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA) has been fluid.

Things went for a toss after the incumbent Secretary of AMMA -- popular actor Siddique resigned after a former actress pointed fingers at him of misbehaviour.

Soon thereafter names of other actors also surfaced accusing them of similar behaviour.

Seeing all this the AMMA President Mohanlal made it clear that he was not keen to continue, forcing the entire 17-member executive to resign.

Following this, the committee under Mohanlal was asked to continue in the capacity of ad hoc committee until fresh elections are held.

At the recently held annual general body, the decision was made that on August 15 a new executive should be appointed through a democratic process.

Now with the last date of nomination coming up on July 24 and on July 31 it will be known if there is going to be voting.

With around 500 members in AMMA, it's going to be a race against time as hectic parleys have started on the name of candidates who will be going to contest.

With Mammootty now undergoing treatment and Mohanlal has already announced that he is done with anymore posts, the race has begun.

By now factions have also emerged with one section led by State Transport Minister K.B. Ganesh Kumar, who is already controlling the body of Television and Serial actors, he is keen to be a kingmaker in the film actors association too.

Another faction who are keen to make it to the helm includes actor Baburaj who has started to make the vital moves.

While there is another group which wants college professor-turned-actor Jagdeesh to take the lead.

Yet another section is trying to see if a compromise can be reached to avoid an election, but their plans have reached a dead end when veteran actor Vijayaraghavan backed out, so did popular actor Kunchacko Bobban.

Incidentally, the outgoing committee which was elected in 2024 had its term till 2027, but circumstances saw that it had a premature end when Mohanlal expressed his inability to continue.

Many AMMA members now lament that with the passing away of comedian Innocent, who was the President for 15 years till 2018, things have not been the same as he had the knack of running AMMA through his deft handling without hurting the ego of any through his jokes.

--IANS

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