“Bhavana is not in AMMA, we can’t bring back the dead,” said Edavela Babu, general secretary of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes (AMMA) in an interview to Reporter TV's Editor-in-chief Nikesh Kumar. He was answering a question on actor Bhavana being included in a movie that the association was planning to make.

Actor and office bearer of AMMA Edavela Babu was attending an interview on Reporter TV to talk about AMMA’s plans about starting an over the top (OTT) platform for Malayalam content and make a movie to raise some funds for a building. Nikesh Kumar, the channel’s founder, then asked him if actor Bhavana would be there in the movie that AMMA was making. It was then that Babu gave this strange answer.

AMMA has earlier made a movie in 2008 called Twenty: 20 in which many prominent actors appeared and worked free of charge, to raise funds to help out the struggling artistes in the industry. However, for the new film, actors will not be working totally free of cost, said Babu.

Bhavana had done a prominent role in Twenty: 20. While admitting that, Babu said that a veteran actor like Nedumudi Venu had not played a role in the film, since there was nothing suitable for him. They will only be including people who are presently a part of AMMA, he reiterated.

This leaves a question if Dileep, an accused in the abduction and assault of a woman actor in Kochi, would be involved in the film. He was the producer and distributor of Twenty: 20 and had also played an important role in the film. After he got named as an accused, Dileep was removed from AMMA in 2017. However, members of AMMA had later decided to invite him back to the organisation, which he refused to do.

Watch: Edavela Babu speak on the film by AMMA