Kerala - Kochi   

MACTA Federation plunges into crisis

KOCHI: MACTA Federation, the apex body of 19 trade unions in the Malayalam film industry, plunged into a crisis on Saturday with some directors tendering their resignations following serious differences with Vinayan, general secretary of the federation.

The directors who have resigned from the MACTA Directors’ Union included Fazil, Sathyan Anthikad, Srinivasan, Kamal, Siddique, Priyadarshan, Blessy, Joshy, Ranjith, Lal Jose, Rafi Mecartin, Johney Antony, Anwar Rasheed, M. Padmakumar, Anwar Rasheed, G.S. Vijayan and Amal Neerad.

The fissures within the federation over various issues that had cropped up since its inception widened after the executive committee meeting of the apex body on Wednesday decided not to cooperate with actor Dileep’s forthcoming movie to be directed by Mr. Siddique.

Vinayan, while announcing the decisions taken at the committee meeting, had said that Dileep had violated professional ethics by refusing to act in a movie to be directed by Tulasidas.

Tulasidas had lodged a complaint with the federation saying that the actor refused to act in the movie despite taking an advance payment from the producer. The director also alleged that Dileep was citing the failure of his latest film (College Kumaran) as a major reason for not associating with the venture. The crisis worsened on Friday night when director Ranjith announced that he would resign from the MACTA Directors’ Union in protest against certain remarks made by Vinayan against Siddique (who will direct Dileep’s new movie) during the executive committee meeting of the federation. It is learnt that Vinayan came down heavily on Siddique after the latter made it clear that he would go ahead with his Dileep project. Siddique had also termed Vinayan’s remarks “derogatory.” Reacting to the developments, Vinayan said there was no split in the organisation. He said the federation would not suffer if a few persons decided to stay away from it. The latest development was an off-shoot of the decision taken by the federation on the Dileep issue, he added.

In a related development, the Malayalam Film Television Workers Association has offered support to those willing to break the restrictions imposed by MACTA.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

MACTA Federation plunges into crisis
Discrimination alleged
Malayali meet in U.S.
Two cases transferred to Crime Branch
Businessman’s son killed in accident
CBSE schools allege discrimination
Collector meets Ombudsman
Ombudsman pledges to tackle corruption in local bodies
Cases transferred to Crime Branch
Steps on to improve policing
More vehicles for waste management in city
Kochi Today

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu