The Hindu : Malayalam cinema headed for fresh crisis

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 11, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

Malayalam cinema headed for fresh crisis

By N.J. Nair

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, FEB. 10. Malayalam cinema is headed for a fresh crisis with the fraternal organisations in the film industry up in arms against each other. The simmering differences of opinion between artistes on one side and producers, distributors and exhibitors on the other have surfaced with the Association of Malayalam Movies Artistes (AMMA) deciding to go along with the award function and stage show of a private television channel in Ernakulam on March 7.

The producers, distributors and exhibitors have called for a token protest on February 12 and are planning to initiate stringent action against the artistes who have allegedly violated a pact signed in 2002 which has provisions against appearing in television shows. A meeting was being planned in Kochi to discuss the future course of action, the Kerala Film Producers Association president, B. Sasikumar, told The Hindu today.

AMMA is planning to channel the proceeds of the stage show to include more beneficiaries to the indigent artistes' pension scheme of the association. The producers and exhibitors hold that airing of stage shows of artistes by television channels and the Government's diffidence to address the demands to revise the entertainment tax and power tariff are eating into their profits. ``Almost all films released during Ramzan and Christmas have flopped at the box-office and many of the leading production houses have now closed shop. Unless the artistes decide not to hike their remunerations for the next two years and there is a conscious effort to cut down on the production cost, film-making would be a futile exercise," Mr. Sasikumar said.

If the producers were compelled to pay Rs. 60 lakhs to an artiste and Rs. 35 lakhs to a director, and if the total cost exceeded Rs. 2 crores, the industry would not survive. The increasing number of stage shows has also affected the collection in cinemas. If AMMA wanted to give pension to more artistes, they should channel one per cent of their remuneration into a corpus, Mr. Sasikumar said.

Artistes had a sense of insecurity and unless they charged reasonable fee when in demand, their survival would be at stake once they bowed out. Mr. Sasikumar denied these charges and said they were insisting on discipline in the interest of the industry and not for targeting the artistes. If they failed to iron out a solution, the industry, which employed around 2 lakh people, would come to a halt within the next few days.

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