Showbiz was always a lucrative opportunity for criminal enterprises. The Malayalam movie industry is also drifting towards a goonda raj, thanks to production teams, which hire local gangsters for crowd management. Young actors need goons to build up a fans’ association and veterans rely on anti-social elements to keep control of trade associations.
"I will not set foot in Alappuzha ever again," a leading actor in Malayalam muttered in frustration after a gang of goons barged into a shooting location and smashed up stuff. A thespian was badly injured in the attack.
Alappuzha, once considered a lucky charm for Malayalam movie industry, is now infamous for its criminal gangs. "Shooting locations in Alappuzha are controlled by a gang of goons. The production units and criminals need each other. So, they keep the nexus a secret," a prominent movie director from the town said.
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Production units rely on local goons to manage the eager crowds thronging shooting locations. The practice has become so rampant that musclemen became a regular feature at shooting locations. They expect to be paid whether their services are required or not. Gangs of thugs roamed shooting locations in interior Kuttanad, collecting “protection money” from film units.
The production houses eventually hired bigger groups to keep local goons in check. These bouncers became an integral part of a film unit. They offer protection from curious onlookers and even settles disputes in the industry.
The “protectors” eventually turn extortionists, a movie producer learned the hard way. His production controllers refused to pay up the musclemen who asked for money as soon as the shooting started. Moments later, a soda bottle flew in to the location and shattered the ambiance. Another one followed, this time close to the lead actress. The terrified woman fled the scene.
She would not come to that location again. The producer had lost lakhs of rupees in two days. He decided to pay up to ensure that no more bottles came crashing in.
Off-screen baddies
The gangsters’ influence in cinema in Kochi was accidental, according to some accounts.
The problems started when a group of local people tried to sneak into a shooting location at Mattanchery to have a glimpse of their favorite star. They were blocked by the people working on the set. The men returned with the goons in the area.
The production unit had to pay a decent amount to send the menacing gangsters back. That eventually became a trend. The gangsters had drawn blood. They sensed an opportunity to rake in some moolah without much work.
In the next phase, a few of them joined the production units as helpers and guides. They were useful for the directors while shooting in remote locales. They brought in more friends to the network, which included several associate directors.
Some goons even turned out to be actors. The luckiest of them had a significant role in a hit movie. His presence, however, became an embarrassment for the moviemaker when he was taken into custody by the police in a chain-snatching case even before the movie was released.
Another category infested with criminal elements is the drivers affiliated with production units. Many goons have rented their cars for shooting-related work.
A prominent actor had a forgettable experience with one such driver. The actor wanted to go to Mangaluru from Ernakulam. He was led to a driver on the set who was not assigned any other work that day.
The driver endeared himself to the actor by leading him to an awesome food joint on the way. He found his way into the actor’s closed group as a loyalist. It took the actor some time before he was told about the driver’s antecedents. He had to find a job for his loyalist abroad to do away with him.
"Most of the problems are created by criminals masquerading as drivers. They overhear the telephone conversations of their passengers and blackmails them later. They are still active," a senior director said.
Tragedy in making
The prime accused in the abduction and harassment of an actor in her car had been given a free hand in the industry for years. Sunil Kumar, better known as ‘Pulsar’ Suni, had tried to kidnap actor Menaka a few years ago, her husband G. Suresh Kumar, a producer, revealed after the news on the actress attack.
Menaka had just reached the Kochi railway station from Thiruvananthapuram. She was to act in a movie produced by Johny Sagarika. A driver greeted her with a van, instead of a car. Menaka grew suspicious but the driver convinced her that there was no car available on the set. When the vehicle started going around the city, Menaka called up Suresh Kumar and Johny Sagarika.
The driver and his accomplice in the van sensed that their plan was off. They dropped Menaka in front of a hotel and fled.
That driver was Sunil Kumar aka Pulsar Suni, who was working as Johny's driver at the time of the incident. He went missing after Suresh Kumar lodged a police complaint in Kochi the next day. Johny instantly recognized Suni when his pictures were flashed in the media as a suspect in Friday’s attack.
Up in smoke
A section of “new-generation” technicians and artistes have a large role in letting criminals into the industry. Many of them spice up their work schedule with intoxicating substances. They rope in gangsters and criminals to act in their movies.
Those who are not lucky to make an appearance in movies go on to join the production units. They sometimes end up with responsibilities, including fetching actresses to the shooting location and dropping them back.
Movie artistes and technicians are a permanent presence in the rave parties in Kochi. They rely on shady characters for a steady supply of ganja and other narcotics. A man associated with the industry had stirred a controversy when he went up to his neighbors’ apartment stark naked and tried to molest her. God knows what he was smoking.
The director of a mega stage show in Kochi had the horror of his life when he found an underworld don toasting with the actors in the rehearsal camp. The don had come with a supply of imported liquor. The director booted him out of the camp but the actors carried on with the party in the don's hotel room.
Raving mad
Several movie artistes and technicians have been caught in police raids of the rave parties in Kochi. People working in the industry are involved whenever the police raids a party. It could be in the safety of an apartment or in a boat swaying on the lake or even on a remote island.
The police have been trying to net a former movie producer for his connections with the narcotics trade network. Every time they zeroed in on him based on tipoffs from drug peddlers, he managed to escape.
The goons come handy for newcomers in the industry. A few new actors had formed fans' associations with the help of local criminals. They put up huge cutouts of the actors in front of the movie halls to create an illusion of the actors’ popularity. The strategy sometimes pays off, landing the greenhorns more roles.
The involvement of an actor in an abduction case related to hawala transactions was further proof of the growing criminalization of the entertainment industry. Another actor was arrested with a few models and narcotic substances in a Kochi apartment.
The Enforcement Directorate probing the gold smuggling racket led by Fayaz had raided the house of a production controller and the office of a director in Ernakulam. They were faced with clear evidence of illegal money transactions.
A senior cop in Kochi was faced with a curious complaint from a woman working in the industry. She told him in a casual talk about a young actor known for his on-screen baddie image. She said that the handsome actor was a womanizer on the prowl on social media.
His modus operandi involved a tempting offer to arrange for his victims to act in movies. He would chat with them late into night. The next step would be video chatting, where the unsuspecting girls oblige his requests for a little strip show.
The actor records the clips and blackmails his victims later. The woman who went to the police officer said she knew of a few girls who had fallen for him but backtracked when the officer asked her to give it in writing.
Dangerous one-upmanship
The bitter fight for domination of the trade bodies within the cinema industry sometimes provides a fertile ground for criminals to operate. Office-bearers of the trade bodies squeeze in their loyalists to keep control in later elections.
Most of the time, there is no background check before allotting memberships. The unscrupulous elements eventually set the association’s agenda and dominate the debates.
The changing character of the associations was put on display when a senior director was shouted down by someone when he tried to raise a point during a meeting of the body.
The movie workers are to be blamed for the criminal elements growing in stature within the industry. Even if a criminal is caught, the other members in the association try to protect him by influencing the complainant. Such interventions encourage the criminals to expand their activities that lead up to blackmailing and abduction.
Background checks
Veteran director and Kerala Chalachitra Academy chairman Kamal thinks people working in the cinema industry should do their own background checks before choosing their staff and associates.
"Earlier actresses were always accompanied by relatives when they came to the shooting sets. Actors did not have any body guards. We would seek the help of police if we wanted during outdoor shoots. Private security guards were employed after problems started cropping up between the police and the people who came to watch the shooting. Later, many actors employed their own personal bodyguards. Criminals sometimes find their way to the industry as aides and bodyguards.
"No one had given a serious thought to such trends so far. We have to be alert now at least. Some movie artistes and technicians in Kochi were tagged with drug abuse because they were in the wrong company.
"People in the industry have a responsibility to check what such people are doing. The associations have to talk about it. Do not let anyone tag along unless you know who they are."
Out of proportion?
Film Employees’ Federation of Kerala general secretary B. Unnikrishnan said the trade associations do conduct elaborate security checks before granting memberships. "The drivers' union has 356 registered drivers. None of them have misbehaved with any actress. They will not. The accused in actress attack case, Pulsar Suni and Martin, are not members of the drivers' union affiliated to Fefka.
"Still we will distribute new identity cards to all drivers in the wake of the latest incident. The cards will be issued only after a police verification.
"When you say cinema has been criminalized, it is a bit of exaggeration. We have not come across any criminal gangs on shooting sets. None of our actors have bodyguards. I do not think there is anything wrong in hiring a security team for functions that draw a crowd."
