What does A.M.M.A do? Why is it beneficial for its members to remain in it despite all the controversies around it?
Hey anon, this is going to be a long post about the political machinations of the Malayalam industry in the last decade. Among other things, AMMA gives retirement benefits for older actors and health and other benefits for poor members. The AMMA stage shows and the terrible film Twenty:20, which Dileep famously produced, are some of the more prominent initiatives to support the pension and insurance plans that you might be familiar with.
They maintain a database of due-paying members and intervene in pay disputes and other labor violations. If you’ve read the recent letter to AMMA from Padmapriya and Parvathy, they mention the support Padmapriya received from AMMA after she was physically assaulted by the Tamil director Sami to make her cry in a scene.
At the same time, AMMA is extremely selective in how it treats the same issue when it comes to different members based on who is in favor and who is not. The open letter in The Indian Express mentions two separate incidents involving different people of casteist comments from one member to another. In one case, they intervened and talked it out with the members, and in the other, they did not.
Still, up until the great Thilakan was expelled from AMMA for acting in a film by director Vinayan, who was himself blacklisted after a split in the technicians union MACTA (forming FEFKA, closely aligned with AMMA), and Thilakan’s subsequent death, AMMA enjoyed a lot of goodwill among Indian film industries and the general public for its ability to unify the different actors’ camps and care for artists who normally have no other means in old age or disability.
AMMA, FEFKA and the new film exhibitors group formed by Dileep, FEUOK, are essentially run as mafias. For an upcoming or character actor, you get networking privileges and recommendations for roles by joining AMMA. As you establish yourself and gain box office clout, you can consolidate your power by getting on the working an executive committees and using close links with the other film unions to your advantage or simply forming new ones.
Dileep was a master of this influence-building, which is why his sins in the past were so easily brushed aside. His power had the Big Ms scared of him by the time Twenty:20 came out. He has a reputation for sending out gangs to theaters to boo the films of people who didn’t kowtow to him or made him feel threatened and later commissioning online trolls. Prithviraj and his fans believe Dileep was responsible for a lot of the ill-will directed at Prithvi and his films in the early years.
From the beginning, Prithviraj has expressed disdain for AMMA’s machinations and the superstar culture that pervades the industry. Now that female actors with any sort of following are essentially being aged out of the industry after their first hit because producers don’t want to pay women, there’s actually no benefit in someone like Rima Kallingal or Remya Nambeesan staying other than the fear of being abused and harassed online and professionally if they leave. They’ve already been blacklisted for for a) being older than 30 and a recognizable face b) forming WCC and having opinions.
There are rumors of a new association in the works. A group of 100 film workers, led by the Aashiq Abu-Rajeev Ravi-Anwar Rasheed wing of the industry, sent an open letter to AMMA yesterday reiterating their support for the sexual assault survivor and their support for the women who’ve left AMMA (some of whom are obviously married to these guys). A lot of people are taking that as the first move towards this new union. Many people think that group won’t be confirmed publicly until Prithviraj declares support for it.
The other political angle in this is the two MLAs who wield significant influence in AMMA, Ganesh Kumar and Mukesh, and Innocent MP, AMMA’s president until this week. They have been very mealy-mouthed in their support for the victim while showing OTT support for Dileep. They are in the governing coalition, LDF, and could potentially become a political obstacle for the new film group but LDF is also extremely concerned about the female vote in the next election as their elected leaders are running around being misogynistic pieces of shit.
ETA: Today, 14 more WCC members, including Amala Akkineni and Ranjini, have said they did not ever wish to join AMMA due to its historically poor treatment of women. And 30 more Malayalam film workers have come forward with support for the survivor and WCC. The Kannada industry, where the survivor has strong ties, has sent a letter condemning AMMA’s treatment of her.