Three prominent associations in the Tamil film industry - The South Indian Cine Artistes Association (Nadigar Sangam), The Tamil Film Producers’ Council (TFPC) and The Directors’ Council are all in trouble.
While the elections for the South Indian Cine Artistes Association aka Nadigar Sangam was held recently, the results are yet to be declared. The High Court of Madras has stayed the counting of the votes besides declining to vacate the petition filed by Vishal.
Elections in the Nadigar Sangam are held once every three years to elect the President and other members of the group. The last elections were held in 2015 in which Nasser was selected as the President.
Ponvannan and Karunas were elected as the Vice Presidents with Vishal and Karthi elected as the General Secretary and Treasurer respectively. It is for these posts the elections were held last month. In this election, a new team headed by director Bhagyaraj which was devised by actor, producer and industrialist Ishari K Ganesh was formed opposite Vishal and contested in the elections.
Likewise, the Producers’ Council also ran into trouble with the appointing a government official but there is still no clarity on the functioning of this association. It may be noted here that Vishal was the General Secretary of the Nadigar Sangam and the President of the Producers’ Council.
While the problem persists in the Nadigar Sangam and Prodcuers’ Council, the situation is no different in the Directors’ Council as well. Director Bharathiraja, who was unanimously elected as President in the Tamil Nadu Film Directors’ Association last month, has now resigned from his post.
Following which elections was announced and during the nomination process, some issues cropped up following which directors Ameer and SP Jananathan decided not to contest in the elections. This resulted in the elections being put off.
With three of the major film associations dealing with such issues and the film industry facing its own problems with respect to delayed releases, the plight of several films getting ready to hit the marquee seems bleak at present.
(Content provided by Digital Native)