The crucial meeting between the Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes (AMMA) and three members of the Women in Cinema Collective (WCC) took place in Kochi on Tuesday. WCC members Revathy, Padma Priya, and Parvathy, who had asked for the meeting, arrived well ahead of the designated time of 4 pm.
Among the first to arrive were president Mohanlal, Baburaj, Siddique, Indrans, Jayasurya, and Tiny Tom. AMMA also met with actors Shammi Thilakan and Joy Mathew who had raised complaints.
The meeting was called for by Revathy, Padma Priya, and Parvathy after the film body reinstated rape accused Dileep. Following the move, four members of AMMA, Rima Kallingal, Geetu Mohandas, Remya Nambeessan, and the survivor had resigned.
After a discussion that went on for over two hours, AMMA members met the press. Stating that it had been an executive meeting, AMMA told the press that they are considering changing the bye-laws and setting up a disciplinary committee.
"We were not very serious as an organisation for the longest time because nothing warranted it. But now, we have decided to make it more professional. We have considered all their issues and we know that these are weighty issues. We will have a general body meeting following this executive meeting. They will be given a platform to express everything. We still have a lot of issues to discuss," said the AMMA representatives, reiterating that they will stand as one group and resolve issues.
WCC member Revathy told the press that the three members had not come as WCC members but as life members of AMMA: "We did not come as WCC members. We are here as life members of AMMA. We are still discussing things."
Actor Jagadeesh, who is a member of the Executive Council, said, "It was not AMMA's decision to implead in the case. We had requested Honey Rose and Rachana for their inputs while discussing how to help the assault victim. AMMA has no direct involvement in the issue. The two of them volunteered."
Jagadeesh added that Rachana was a close friend of the survivor. Speaking about the WCC members who had resigned from AMMA, Jagadeesh said, "We are currently discussing if we can take back the resigned actors. It's too early to say that, but it's an open discussion for now."
Actor Baburaj claimed that the clash between the WCC and AMMA was the result of "misunderstandings.”
"Many people have made them (WCC) misunderstand things. We are squashing all this," he said. President of AMMA, Mohanlal, asserted that he wasn't going to quit despite the dissent expressed about his decisions so far. He said, "I don't want to resign. Without quitting, I want to run this smoothly with everyone's support."
In response to a question, Mohanlal said that AMMA would accept that it had made a mistake in reinstating Dileep only after the truth of the matter was established. However, actor Joy Mathew told the press that AMMA had admitted to reinstating Dileep without listing it as part of the agenda in its General Body meeting. Mohanlal had previously claimed otherwise.
Rachana, who along with Honey Rose, has impleaded in the case, said, "We are not going to withdraw the plea. If there's any legal complication with regard to any point in the plea and it's going to be detrimental, we will remove that part. We have not decided to withdraw the plea. The lapse was that we never discussed the decision to implead with the survivor." Revathy closed the press meet on a positive note by saying, "We are having a very healthy discussion and that's the first step forward."
Some of the others who were spotted at the meeting include Swetha Menon, Mukesh, Edavela Babu, and Aju Varghese. The artistes also observed a minute of silence for former Tamil Nadu CM Karunanidhi who passed away on Tuesday evening at the meeting.