Mohanlal resigns as AMMA president; executive committee dissolved amid Hema Commission row
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Actor Mohanlal resigned as president of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA) on Tuesday. All the members of the executive committee submitted their joint resignation. The unexpected turn of events took place even as Jagadish was being considered for the general secretary post after actor Siddique stepped down after facing sexual abuse allegations.
As per a statement released by the Association, the executive committee was dissolved after some of its members faced sexual abuse allegations, which were reported in the media. “In light of allegations made by some actors against some of the committee members, AMMA has decided to dissolve the executive committee taking moral responsibility. A new committee will be formed after an election within two months,” the statement read.
“We hope that a leadership that is capable of revamping and strengthening the association will take over soon. We are thankful everyone for pointing out our errors,” the statement said.
Actor-director Joy Mathew who is part of the committee that resigned, told Onmanorama that the decision was unanimous. "As sexual allegations were raised against those in the leadership, there was an opinion among us that the committee should resign on moral grounds. Mohanlal as the president agreed to the view. Now, we will continue as an ad-hoc committee but there won't be positions like president and secretary," Joy Mathew said.
The AMMA leadership initially had plans to hold an executive committee meeting to discuss the allegations of sexual abuse against the committee members. The meeting also hoped to select an ideal candidate as joint secretary to replace actor Siddique who had stepped down from the post. However, the committee was in a quandary after joint secretary Baburaj began to face allegations of sexual abuse. The differences of opinion aired by vice-presidents Jagadish and Jayan Cherthala on the Hema Committee report also exposed the tiff within the association.Actors Jagadish, Jayan Cherthala, Baburaj, Kalabhavan Shajon, Suraj Venjaramoodu, Joy Mathew, Suresh Krishna, Tini Tom, Ananya, Vinu Mohan, Tovino Thomas, Sarayu, Ansiba and Jomol were part of the now-dissolved executive committee.