The Film Employees Federation of Kerala (FEFKA) has strongly objected to the raid conducted on the room of Malayalam scriptwriter and director Najeem Koya and has called for an investigation into the individuals responsible for spreading false information. The raid, carried out by 15 to 20 officials from the Excise Department three days ago, was prompted by a tipoff but yielded no incriminating evidence. B Unnikrishnan, filmmaker and general secretary of FEFKA, expressed concerns about a criminal conspiracy to frame Najeem during a press conference held in Kochi on June 8.
“Najeem was returning to his hotel after the day’s work – he is directing a web series for Hotstar now. A number of officials came to his room and one of them told him very disrespectfully ‘to take out the stuff’ using words like ‘nee’ and ‘da’. The raid went on for two hours during which they ransacked the entire room and bathroom. One official remarked to Najeem, ‘You seem so confident, are you sure it is not here’. They had searched the production team’s car too. In the end they didn’t get anything. But it was mental harassment to Najeem,” Unnikrishnan said.
There were many people in the film industry staying at the hotel, but only Najeem’s room was searched. This seemed like a conspiracy, targeting one person, Unnikrishnan said. “We know that no investigation agency will reveal its source. But we are asking to bring this source – who passed fake information to trap a person – under the purview of the investigation.”
Najeem, who spoke at the conference, said that he was afraid if something would be planted in his room to incriminate him and kept following every official around. “I don’t even drink alcohol, let alone use drugs,” he said.
They have given formal complaints to investigate if there was a conspiracy against Najeem. He has written films like Apoorvaragam, Friday and Sherlock Toms, and directed the film Kaly.
In addition to objecting to the raid, FEFKA raised concerns about the increased surveillance being imposed on film sets in recent days. Unnikrishnan criticised the idea of "shadow policing" on film sets, stating that it is impractical and not feasible due to the nature of the work. Commissioner K Sethuraman, in response, suggested that Unnikrishnan address his concerns with the police and explained that they chose not to wear uniforms during the surveillance to avoid disrupting the film's production.
The idea of policing the film sets began after recent revelations of drug use among a few young actors in Malayalam cinema. The Kerala Film Producers Association recently spoke out about two actors – Shane Nigam and Sreenath Bhasi – causing trouble on the sets or disrupting work by their alleged intoxicated behaviour. They said that producers of the association will not be cooperating with these two actors, and other film organisations had also agreed to this.
Unnikrishnan said on Thursday that this had somehow created a general impression that all youngsters in cinema are addicted to drugs. “The irony is that the people who are alleged of using drugs are actors but it is a writer-director who was raided.”
He also asked why no one was getting a statement from actor Tiny Tom, who was recently made ambassador of the Kerala police’s campaign against drug use. Tiny had said during an event that drug use was so bad among some actors that he had seen someone’s teeth grinded by overuse. He also said then that his wife and he didn’t want their son to act in Malayalam cinema because of the problem of substance abuse among young people.