On Thursday, December 9, Malayalam superstar Mohanlal was elected President of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA) once again. Nobody else filed their nomination for the post. Similarly, actor Edavela Babu will continue in his post as General Secretary, with actor Jayasurya as Joint Secretary.
Actor Sidhique is the Treasurer. Fourteen have filed their nomination to be part of the Executive Committee, out of which only five are women. The list includes actors Nivin Pauly, Tovino Thomas, Surabhi Lakshmy, Unni Mukundan, Lena and others. Eleven members will be elected from this list.
Asha Sharath, Shwetha Menon and Maniyan Pilla Raju have filed their nomination for the post of Vice President.
The elections for these posts will be held on December 19 at Hotel Crown Plaza in Kochi, and the results will be announced later in the afternoon on the same day. The term period is 2021-2024.
AMMA has come under controversy in recent years after its problematic stances in the actor assault case. When Mohanlal was elected as President in 2018, among the first decisions the film body took was to invite Dileep, accused of being the mastermind of the crime, back into its fold. Dileep had previously been expelled for his alleged role in the crime.
The Women in Cinema Collective (WCC), which was formed soon after a woman actor was abducted and sexually assaulted in a moving vehicle in 2017, has accused AMMA of being hostile towards them. Several of them also resigned from the organisation in protest over the misogynistic and insensitive attitude displayed by the film body.