Members of all the 19 unions, including the breakaway faction of top directors, the mainstream actors and producers, Writers Union, the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists Association (AMMA), which were all part of MACTA, have announced a new organisation on Monday after the meeting held at the Sarovaraom hotel, Kochi.
Ace Director Siddique was selected as the chairman of the adhoc committee formed to prepare the bylaws and other initiatives of the yet-to-be-named new organization. Film industry sources said that the name of the new organisation would be MAMTA (Malayalam Movie Technicians' Association).
B. Unnikrishanan was selected as the General convener; Aroma Mohan will be the treasurer of the committee. Hariharan, Fazil, Joshy, John Paul, Sibi Malayail, Renjith and Renji Pannikkar will be the other consultants of this committee.
Superstars Mohanlal and Mammootty, Directors Blessy, Ranji Panickker, K. Madhu, I.V. Sasi, Siddiq, AMMA President Innocent, actor Lalu Alex and actress Kavya Madhavan were among those who participated in the meeting, which was inaugurated by veteran director T.E. Vasudevan.
"A new organization has become a necessity and we are sure that it would take the industry to greater heights,” superstar Mohanlal said, while announcing the decisions taken by the meeting. He described the new body as the outcome of a 'purification' ceremony in the film industry.
Addressing the meeting of the various workers in the industry, superstar Mammootty said that he is confident that the new organisation would help the film industry. He criticized MACTA Federation General Secretary, Vinayan, for his reported remarks against Mohanlal, who is also the General Secretary of the Association of Malayalam Film Artists (AMMA).
Almost all the personalities who spoke at the meeting came down heavily against MACTA general secretary Vinayan, who is allegedly said to have taken autocratic stands in the associated issues. They stressed the need of democracy in running a federation like MACTA.
Actor-politician K.B. Ganesh Kumar, MLA, said the state government and Chief Minister had promised full support to the new organisation to make films. He also called for a probe into the alleged financial irregularities in the MACTA federation.
