The simmering discontent within the Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes (AMMA) over its alleged soft stand towards producer and actor Vijay Babu, accused of raping of a young actor, came to the fore yet again with actor and MLA K.B. Ganesh Kumar lashing out at the AMMA leadership over Vijay Babu being given special treatment.
In an open letter to actor and AMMA president Mohanlal on Sunday, he said that the organisation had taken different approaches to Dileep and Vijay Babu, though both were accused of crime of similar nature.
“The action taken against Dileep should be applicable to others too. Vijay Babu and Dileep, facing similar allegations, were treated differently by the organisation. The AMMA official page was used to share a video of Vijay Babu making a “mass entry” to the AMMA general body meeting. Mohanlal should stop being silent about these issues. It is disappointing that he did not correct Edavela Babu who claimed that AMMA is a club. He should remain vigilant against those who pull the strings from behind the scenes. I have no personal enmity towards Vijay Babu. I have even canvassed votes for him in the previous AMMA elections,” said Mr. Ganesh Kumar in the letter.
Different issues
He said that actors Jagathy Sreekumar, Bineesh Kodiyeri and Priyanka had unnecessarily dragged into the issue. Bineesh had been an accused in a case related to an economic offence, which could not be compared to a case related to alleged sexual assault of a woman.
He said that he was forced to write an open letter since there had been no response from Mohanlal’s side to letters that were sent previously in July 2018 and January 2021 regarding certain undesirable tendencies in the organisation.
"Several members, who wish to air their concerns regarding various issues, are remaining silent because of the fear that they would lose opportunity to act in films and also would be deprived of other benefits. I have chosen to become the voice of those who are opposed to the authoritarian elements who have hijacked AMMA because I do not have any such fears. Mohanlal, as AMMA president, should answer for the serious diversion from the organisation's stated policy in recent times," he said.
Resignation
Following Vijay Babu's participation in the AMMA general body meeting last week, Mr. Ganesh Kumar had said that the accused should resign from AMMA and stay away from it until his name was cleared. After allegations were raised by a young female actor, Vijay Babu, who was an AMMA executive committee member, had expressed his willingness to “temporarily stay away” from the committee until his innocence was proven. AMMA later issued a press release saying that it had “accepted his request”. Within two days, three members of AMMA’s Internal Complaints Committee resigned in protest against the organisation not demanding his resignation.
