Many divisions within the Tamil film industry came out in the open on Saturday, with a section of representatives from Film Producers Council, Film Exhibitors Association and Film Distributors Federations saying they were boycotting the elections to the South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce (SIFCC) scheduled for Sunday.
At a press conference, Tamil Film Producers’ Council president Keyar said the candidature for the SIFCC presidentship was rotated on an annual basis to accommodate representatives of the four South Indian film industries - Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam.
This was Malayalam film industry’s turn and the regional film federations from Kerala had nominated G.P. Vijayakumar of the production house Seven Arts. However, the incumbent office-bearers, instead of accepting and supporting the nomination as official and paving the way for him to take the office, had allowed another nomination in one Sasikumar, and had challenged them to elections.
Mr. Keyar (short for Kothanda Ramiah) contended in the past such nominations were accepted and elections had been mere formality. But shocked by the incumbent office bearer’s attitude and also knowing fully well that the current administration had obtained the votes of over 700 members through proxies, he said a section of the film associations of Tamil Nadu had decided to boycott the polls.
In response, SIFCC president C. Kalyan said press meet by the section of film industry representatives was mere posturing. He also denied allegations that the rights of Tamil industry was not being looked at. He guaranteed that despite the call for boycott, Sunday polls would register considerable voting even from members of Tamil federations.
The South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce is the apex body for all South Indian film industries and is a member of the trade body Film Federation of India. Its representatives lobby at New Delhi over various demands.
