It has been a sweet vindication of a long drawn out battle spanning eight years for director Vinayan. In a landmark decision, two prominent Mollywood organisations — AMMA and FEFKA — have been pulled up by the Competition Commission of India after finding that they indulged in anti- competitive conduct by boycotting Vinayan and imposed a huge penalty on various office bearers of the two organisations. The reason for this unofficial ban began eight years ago when Vinayan was the general secretary of the first trade union of film people, MACTA. Vinayan says, “A star had taken an advance of Rs14 lakh for a film but sadly two films of the director he was slated to work with flopped and the actor wanted to replace him. I called a general body meeting and refused to accede to the actor’s demands.”
“I told the star that they (the director and actor) could either reach a compromise or the actor could return the advance. This was the first time that someone had spoken against the stars.” The repercussions were instant —within 15 days, some prominent members resigned from MACTA and FEFKA was formed with the support of superstars and top directors. From that day, Vinayan claims, whomsoever spoke against super stars and top directors were banned or dates denied.
Vinayan states, “There was no one ready to speak against the powerful superstars because they knew their career would be finished. I was unofficially banned and artistes who worked with me too were banned- all this was done as a secret agenda.” Talking about why he approached the little known Competition Commission of India, Vinayan replies, “If I were to approach the Kerala courts, no one would testify for me and I would have no proof. The very people whom I brought into the industry like Jayasurya, Prithviraj and Kalabahavan Mani were not ready to speak for me so I was searching for somebody to address my grievance and came upon this Commission in 2014 and filed a complaint. The Competition Council has an investigation team that conducted a thorough probe and then gave this verdict. This is a commission with all judiciary powers.” Meanwhile, the Kerala High Court had earlier dismissed the pleas filed by the filmmakers against the notice issued by the Competition Commission of India on Vinayan’s complaint.
Through all this, Vinayan says, he carries no personal grudges towards anybody. He says, “People are ready to cooperate with me once again and I will return to cinema! Tomorrow if Unnikrishnan wants any kind of help I will offer it wholeheartedly. My fight is against the unfair methods they used. I lost eight years of my professional life and don’t know if I can return to being the old Vinayan but I will try!” Meanwhile, Edavela Babu of AMMA clarified that they will be appealing against this decision.
