Upasana Singh, Sahila Chaddha lead in film workers' body re-election after feud with Poonam Dhillon, Padmini Kolhapure

CINTAA re-relections were held on Saturday after a feud broke out between Upasana Singh, Poonam Dhillon and other members.

The re-elections for the Cine and TV Artistes’ Association (CINTAA) were held on Saturday after mass resignations and a feud among members of the film workers’ body. After the dispute led to police intervention on Friday, the re-elections saw Upasana Singh and Sahila Chaddha win the most votes. (Also Read: Police scold Poonam Dhillon, Upasana Singh for ugly fight at film workers' body office: ‘Care about your reputation’)

Upasana Singh won the maximum number of votes in CINTAA re-elections.

Upasana Singh gets the most CINTAA votes

Upasana received 360 votes, while Sahila received 357. The rest of the winning panel includes Vikas Verma with 349 votes, Deepak Parashar with 348, Kunickaa Sadanand with 312, Varsha Usgaonkar Sharma with 306, Nagma Moraji with 290, Nirmai Bali with 266, Arjun with 250, Asmaan Tahlim with 237, Shehzad Khan with 234, Manish Kumar Chaturvedi with 219, Sapan Kumar Bhattacharya with 197, Ramtumar Singh with 184 and Ramakant Borude with 176.

Nagma reacts to being on winning panel

Nagma took to her Instagram account after the election results were announced and wrote, “Appreciate All the Members of #CINTAA for bestowing their trust in our Panel and making us #win #Thank you for all your Support Victory is all yours . #cintaa #elections 2026 artists association.” Videos from the elections also show the winning members celebrating with hugs and flowers, cheering for each other and expressing their happiness at the win.

Police intervention before elections

The film workers’ body has been feuding for a while now, with Poonam Dhillon and Padmini Kolhapure previously leading them. In August, 11 members, including 8 elected representatives of the 21-member elected committee, resigned. In a joint letter, the members listed alleged repeated instances of the association moving away from collective decision-making, consultation and constitutional governance. While some members insisted that the previously elected panel was dissolved with the resignations, others argued otherwise.

Poonam and Padmini approached the court for a stay order over the re-relections, but their plea was denied. Just a day before the scheduled elections, allegations were made about an attempt to smuggle out official documents. Videos show the police intervening and even scolding the members, “I feel bad for talking like this. We don’t talk like this to even people from the slums.” They also add, “Care about your reputation at least, people are watching. You are hung up on your allegations and not listening to us. Doosra koi rehta tha, thappad hi maarte the. (We would’ve slapped if it were someone else). We are giving you respect, but there’s a limit to it.”

Both sides claimed that they were only trying to safeguard member information when the police were called to the CINTAA office.