- Shwetha Menon and her 17-member AMMA executive committee resigned after a tense meeting in Kochi
- Menon blamed financial troubles on the previous Mohanlal-led committee's unrecorded cash handling
- Menon's committee claimed all transactions post-September 1 were properly recorded and transparent
Shwetha Menon, who quit on Sunday as president of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA), has put the blame for the body's financial troubles on the earlier committee headed by Mohanlal, even as she walked out along with her entire team.
Menon, the first woman to lead the actors' association, stepped down with all 17 members of her executive committee after a tense annual general body meeting in Kochi. She also gave up her primary membership in AMMA.
Speaking to reporters afterwards, Menon said her committee had inherited the problem and only brought it to light. She said the real fault lay with the previous committee, whose accounts she described as wrong.
According to her, that committee had handled much of its money in cash rather than through recorded channels, and this had gone on for months. She said her own team could not produce clean books because it had been left without a working treasurer but insisted it had flagged every error it found.
Menon also pushed back at the idea that she had been a figurehead. "I am not going to be someone's play doll," she said. She said she felt relieved to be free of the committee, while adding that she felt sympathy for most of her colleagues on it, "apart from some of them."
The walkout followed angry exchanges at the meeting over the receipts and payments figures placed before members by general secretary Kuku Parameswaran. A section of members moved a no-confidence motion against the leadership. Menon held that every transaction after her committee took over was properly recorded and that the books from September 1 onwards were in order, with only the earlier stretch left unaccounted for because the treasurer had gone missing.
In Mohanlal's committee, actor Baburaj had served as joint secretary and Unni Mukundan as treasurer. That body resigned in 2024 in the wake of the Justice Hema Committee report on how women were treated in Malayalam cinema.
The collapse capped a long run of internal trouble. Joint secretary Ansiba Hassan had earlier quit after accusing fellow members, among them Tini Tom and Lakshmi Priya, of harassment and of targeting her on communal lines. She stood by her charges despite a show-cause notice from AMMA and took the matter to the police.
The leadership was also hit by an office dispute. A manager who had been removed was brought back after she went to the police with a harassment complaint against Kuku Parameswaran and treasurer Unni Sivapal, who was then asked to step aside on leave.
Separately, vice-president Lakshmipriya spoke of mismanagement and poor transparency, while actor Mala Parvathy said the committee was kept in the dark on important calls.
Menon had also faced questions over sponsorship money. She had argued that AMMA, as a welfare body for actors, should not turn away support based on a donor's religion or politics.
Actor Ganesh Kumar is said to have backed the leadership at the meeting, while Mohanlal kept out of the dispute. Baburaj, on the other hand, went after the outgoing team, saying it had failed both on the accounts and on the Ansiba Hassan complaint, and questioned how women could stand behind a body that, in his view, had denied her justice.
Cultural Affairs Minister PC Vishnunadh described the row as the association's own internal affair and said the government saw no reason to step in, leaving it to the members to settle.
Speaking to NDTV, actress Anjali Nair, who was part of the executive, stated that during the general body meeting, the members attacked Shwetha instead of taking action and questioning those who played foul in the group. "She is a hard worker and sincere. That's why we decided to step down together as she was unfairly targeted," Anjali said.
An interim committee under actor and MLA Ramesh Pisharody has been put in charge to run AMMA until fresh elections are held. The women-led committee had taken over in August 2025 on a promise of reform, the first time the body's two top posts went to women. Its early exit now reopens the leadership question barely ten months on.
The government will not step in
Cultural Affairs Minister P.C. Vishnunadh said the trouble inside AMMA should be sorted out within the organisation itself. He described the dispute as the actors' body's own internal affair and said the government saw no need to get involved. The minister said he did not know what the discussions at the meeting were about or at what level they were held and that the resignations appeared to be decisions taken on the basis of those internal talks.
What everyone hoped for, he said, was that the body would settle its problems on its own and move ahead. For now, he added, there was nothing that called for government action, and it would be plainly improper for him to comment on a matter that played out inside an organisation.
Also Read: AMMA's First Female President Shwetha Menon, Entire Committee Quits Film Body Over Internal Differences
