The Tamil Film Producers’ Council elections were held on Sunday and the results have finally been announced. Thenandal Films' Murali Ramasamy has been declared the winner of the President’s post. Murali Ramasamy had secured 557 votes while the other two contenders T Rajendar got 388 votes and the independent candidate PL Thenappan won 87 votes.
Murali Ramasamy of Sri Thenandal Films, producer of many blockbuster films including actor Vijay's Mersal and he is the son of Legendary director-producer Rama Narayanan.
Actor-Producer RK Suresh and Producer Kathiresan known as Fiver star Kathiresan elected for the post of Vice Presidents of the council. Producer Chandraprakash Jain has been elected as the General Secretary. Radhakrishnan and Mannan have been elected as the secretaries of the council.
The election was held at the MGR Janaki College in Chennai with the former High Court Judge Jeyachandiran appointed as the Election Officer. Nearly 112 candidates contested for various posts. While star producers Kamal Haasan, Kushboo, Santhanam, SJ Suryah and SVe Sekar turned up for voting.
The Producers’ Council ran into trouble last year with the sitting president Vishal was accused of mishandling funds and there were no proper accounts. Vishal and his team had a series of clashes with the opposition comprising of producers T Siva, Sathya Jyoti Thyagarajan, AL Azhagappan, and others. The warring team had even locked and sealed the TFPC office last year, after which Vishal was arrested for breaking open the seal.
The Inspector-General of Registration found that the association’s office-bearers had violated certain provisions of the Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act. Following which the government appointed a special officer and who took over the council's day-day operations. Later an ad-hoc committee was formed with nine members who were functioning formally. While still there was no clarity on the functioning of this association with confusion prevailing.
It may be noted that Bharathiraja started a new organisation named Tamil Film Active Producers Association with several leading producers recently. Bharathiraja had said in a statement, “The new Association is formed with a view to protecting the interest of active film producers whose requirement for producing, marketing, distributing, and managing their film business faces significant challenges due to the pandemic.”
But still, the Tamil Film Producer' Council is considered as the main parent body, which other film industry bodies like the distributors' association and exhibitors' association would approach for any clarification/arbitration.