AMMA to hold back membership for Sreenath Bhasi

Kochi: A meeting of the executive committee of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA) has decided not to grant its membership to actor Sreenath Bhasi for the time-being. This decision was taken as a ban on the actor imposed by film producers is in force. The committee decided to reconsider the application for membership after Bhasi’s dispute with the producers is resolved. The meeting also decided to grant membership to seven persons, including actress Nikhila Vimal.

Meanwhile, the executive decided to find a solution to the dispute between the young actor Shane Nigam and producers. Organisations in the film industry had decided not to cooperate with Shane Nigam after a controversy arose over the actor’s complaint that the edited version of a film had diminished his significance in it. Shane is a member of AMMA. The executive decided that the problem would be resolved through further dialogue.

Bhasi applied for membership in the artists’ association after organisations in the film industry declared that they would not cooperate with the actor. He had arrived at AMMA’s office and submitted the application for membership last April. According to AMMA’s bylaws, applications for membership could be accepted only after they are approved by the executive committee.

The organisations in the Malayalam film industry decided not to cooperate with Bashi over complaints that he had taken money in advance from a producer but had not kept his part of the bargain and that he was giving out the same dates for different films, thereby upsetting the shooting schedules of various films.

Bhasi sought AMMA’s membership after film organisations declared that agreements signed with artists should have its registration number and that in other cases, they were not willing to shoulder the risk involved.