Group formed to look into Malayalam film industry woes

Kottayam (Kerala), May 2 (IANS) The Kerala government appointed a committee to look into issues plaguing the Malayalam film industry after the first round of talks between various stakeholders of the film fraternity and Culture Minister M.A. Baby Sunday.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Baby said senior bureaucrat T. Balakrishnan would head the committee that would include chairman of the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy K.R. Mohan, Tourism Secretary V. Venu and local self government secretary S.M. Vijayanand.

'We have asked the various organisations to give in writing the issues they feel are plaguing the industry. The next meeting will be held in the state capital May 12 and all these issues would be raised then,' Baby said.

The state government decided to intervene after the producers association decided not to shoot any new films from April 16 and after new films, which were ready last week, failed to be released.

The producers association is cut up with the Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes (AMMA) who despite several requests have failed to find a solution to reduce production costs.

Emerging from the meeting, secretary of Film Employees Federation of Kerala (FEFKA) B. Unnikrishnan thanked the government for calling the meeting.

'The positive aspect is that the government is determined to sort out issues in a time bound manner and they expect all issues would be sorted out before May 31. This shows the commitment,' Unnikrishnan said.