Can the ‘daughters’ revive AMMA’s lost credibility?

Arjun Raghunath

There are many Malayalam films where women outshine men and challenge patriarchal systems. Now the Malayalam film industry itself is hoping for a real-life version of such a story. For the first time, a team of women has taken charge of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA), breaking its long-standing male-dominated structure.

The elite forum representing Mollywood’s biggest names has been in troubled waters in recent years, largely due to its weak stance on women issues -- especially sexual assault allegations against its members. Its credibility was left in tatters.

In a tightly fought election marked by high drama, a new team led by actor Shwetha Menon as AMMA’s first-ever woman president and Cuckoo Parameswaran as general secretary took charge, succeeding none other than the big ‘M’ of Mollywood, Mohanlal. Their task is daunting: to revive AMMA’s lost credibility.

One of the biggest questions is whether the new leadership will be able to persuade a group of women actors, who walked out of AMMA, to return. They had accused the organisation of favouring actor Dileep, arrested for his alleged involvement in the abduction and sexual assault of a colleague, instead of protecting the survivor.

However, what seems to be more pressing for AMMA is to put things back on track so that its welfare activities bring much-needed relief to over a hundred yesteryear actors.

The actor assault row of 2017, the barrage of sexual allegations against known personalities like then AMMA general secretary Siddique and joint secretary Baburaj last year and the revelations of the dark sides of Mollywood in the Hema committee report have caused severe damage to AMMA. The credibility crisis has badly hit AMMA’s revenue, since the association hasn’t been able to organise star shows.

Formed in 1994, AMMA now has 506 members. It functions mostly as a welfare organisation, providing monthly assistance of Rs 5,000 under its ‘Kaineetam’ scheme to over a hundred actors who are either sick or aged. Apart from this, it takes care of the medical needs of the members. To sustain this, AMMA must revive its revenue generation activities.

The unrest over women coming to the leadership roles in the male-dominated film industry was evident from the nomination phase. Shwetha and Cuckoo faced strange allegations. Even a police case was registered against Shwetha, accusing her of performing sexually explicit roles in films. Cuckoo came under attack from the women themselves, accusing her of illegally possessing a memory card containing video footage of the women’s meeting of AMMA members subsequent to the sexual assault row. The involvement of opponents like
former joint secretary Baburaj, who withdrew his nomination from the presidential post after facing sexual harassment allegations, in triggering the allegations was highly suspected.

Pushing through all such roadblocks, Shwetha and Cuckoo defeated actors Devan and Ravindran, respectively. Amid widespread appreciation for breaking the entrenched male-dominance, patriarchal mindsets still found expression. “It’s just old wine in a new bottle. The women were elected with the blessing of known persons like Mohanlal,” commented lyricist-filmmaker Sreekumaran Thampi. Another veteran actor, Kollam Thulasi, faced much criticism for his remark, which he later termed as a joke, that “men should be ruling and women should be beneath men.”

A section within AMMA argues that even the ongoing campaign that team Shwetha should bring back the women members, including the sexual assault survivor, could be a sort of pressure tactic, as it is still uncertain whether the women want to come back.

“It is not just some female actors who are keeping away from AMMA. Many male actors like Prithviraj, Fahadh Faasil and Nivin Pauly are also inactive. The focus of the new leadership should be to regain the organisation’s strength by travelling in the right path and thereby attracting all members back to it, instead of succumbing to pressure to initiate negotiations for bringing back the female actors back to AMMA,” said an AMMA member who preferred not to be named.

Even as the sexual assault survivor is reserving her comments on the leadership change, members of Women in Cinema Collective, which took shape subsequent to the row over the sexual assault, are of the view that AMMA should tender an apology to the sexual assault survivor for not standing with her at the time of crisis.

“Having women at the leadership of AMMA will obviously give more visibility and voice for women in the organisation. WCC was also looking forward to a system change that seems to be happening. But still, AMMA owes an apology to the sexual assault survivor for not staying with her at the time of crisis,” WCC founder member and screenwriter Deedi Damodaran told DH.

Going by the initial reactions and counter-reactions, it seems that it might not be a cakewalk for the new team led by Shwetha, who is a former Miss India Asia Pacific model turned actor. The biggest challenge the team may face could be attempts by the influential male actors for backseat driving. Wholehearted support of the who’s who of Mollywood, especially the big ‘Ms’ Mammootty and Mohanlal, will be a key factor in the efforts to regain AMMA’s credibility.