Tamil Film Directors’ Association elections took place in Chennai on Sunday. Director RK Selvamani won by securing over a major margin of 1380 of the total 1503 votes. Vidyasagar, who contested against him, received only 100 votes. 17 votes were declared invalid.
Director KS Ravikumar who contested for the post of Vice President got 1,289 and won. Director Ravi Maria, who contested for the second Vice President post, won with a margin of 1077 votes. Directors RV Udayakumar and Perarasu have been announced as the general secretary and treasurer, respectively.
The election was presided by Madras High Court Senior lawyer Senthilnathan and the election began at 7 am and continued till 4 in the evening on Sunday. Directors Bharathiraja, KS Ravikumar, Vikraman, Shankar, Seeman, Perarasu, SA Chandrasekhar, Ramesh Kanna, SJ Suriya, Selvaraghavan and Samuthirakani were seen voting. Out of total 2400 members, 2045 were eligible and only 1503 took part in the elections.
The elections initially saw two major teams with one headed by RK Selvamani and other helmed by Ameer. Ameer's team included directors Vetrimaaran, Samuthirakani, and Balaji Sakthivel. But later Ameer and team withdrew from the election as the nominations filed by Ameer and SP Jananathan were rejected by the election officer. Ameer, in turn, had also filed a review petition, which was outright rejected by the officials.
It may be noted RK Selvamani, in addition to becoming the President of the Directors' Union, has been re-elected as the President of the Film Employees Federation of South India (FEFSI) in the elections for office-bearers held earlier this year.
Earlier last month, veteran film director Bharathiraja was chosen as the president of Tamil Nadu Film Directors' Union unanimously by the members during the general body meeting that took place in Kamala Theatre on June 10.
He stepped down from the post in less than a month and his statement read, "I have resigned from my post to allow a democratic selection of the President."
(Content provided by Digital Native)