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Kerala minister backs move by film bodies not to work with 2 actors
Kerala cultural affairs minister Saji Cheriyan said the government has a responsibility to ensure the security of the industry and it has its own rules for this.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala cultural affairs minister Saji Cheriyan on Wednesday lauded the decision by film bodies such as the Kerala Film Producers Association not to work with two actors, Shane Nigam and Sreenath Bhasi, on account of their conduct.
“The charges levelled by film bodies are serious. We will take strict action against those who use drugs on film sets. We will keep an eye on such activities,” said Cheriyan, adding that he will also discuss the problem with film bodies on how to curb such incidents.
“The government has a responsibility to ensure the security of the industry and it has its own rules for this. We will look into it and help them,” he said.
On Tuesday, several associations of actors and producers in the Malayalam film industry announced that they will not work with the two actors because they caused problems for producers and others.
The associations also flagged the use of drugs and proposed to submit a list of actors and other film personalities who use drugs on film sets.
The two actors have not responded to the allegations but people close to them said they were likely to take legal action.
Some recent entrants in the state’s film industry said “organised old film hands” were upset with the new actors and were levelling frivolous allegations against them. A young actor who asked not to be named said: “Some people are quite disturbed over the rise of a young crop of artists so they want to pull them down”.
M Renjith, a representative of Kerala Film Producers Association (KFPA), said Tuesday’s action against the two actors was not linked to any allegation of drug abuse. “Their recurring bad behaviour and indiscipline caused immense trouble to producers and other artists. They were not ready to heed our warnings,” he said. He claimed that actor Nigam demanded that his role be given more prominence when a film was halfway through and that he insisted on seeing the edited version of the film before resuming shooting for the film.
“Some actors refuse to sign agreements because there are many clauses against blatant interference, behaviour and punctuality on sets. A movie is a team work and if a person creates a problem, it will affect all,” said filmmaker B Unnikrishnan.
