Yet again, ego takes centrestage in Kerala actors’ body AMMA

Thiruvananthapuram, June 29  There is never a dull moment in the ego-filled Association of Malayalam Movies Artistes (AMMA) body, as a fresh war of

words has broken out between two top film personalities.

Things have been fluid in the AMMA and this time it’s on account of actor-producer Vijay Babu, presently on bail over charges of rape after a young actress accused him of the ‘crime’.

On Sunday the office bearers of AMMA led by its president, superstar Mohanlal and its secretary Edavela Babu had to face a barrage of questions from the media on what action has been taken by AMMA against Vijay Babu.

Vijay Babu was present at the annual general meeting of AMMA held on Sunday.

The duo and a few other office-bearers said that since a police probe is currently on and Vijay Babu, a member of the executive committee, has already stepped down from that post, let the verdict in the case come and depending on it appropriate action would be taken.

Edavela Babu answering a question stated that AMMA is a ‘Club’ and that triggered a war of words between former state minister and present legislator K.B.Ganesh Kumar and Babu.

What peeved Kumar, known for his razor-sharp tongue, was Edavela Babu’s letter to him which was posted in the Facebook page of AMMA, where he referred to a few previous instances of what stand Kumar took when members like Bineesh Kodiyeri, Jagathy Sreekumar and Priyanka faced charges.

Edavela Babu said in his Facebook post that Kumar did not want any action to be taken until the verdict in the cases which these stars faced came out and that’s what the present committee of AMMA did in the case of Vijay Babu.

Babu also posted the meaning of the word ‘Club’ as given in Wikipedia and that appears to have hurt Kumar.

On Wednesday Kumar came out in the open and said, “I am not an English professor and maybe my English is not as good as his. We all know what Wikipedia is and he doesn’t need to learn it from Babu. I am preparing a detailed letter addressed to the president Mohanlal wherein I will explain my position and want answers from him. Also, I don’t need to be taught the legal aspects as it was me who was present when AMMA was registered as a club 27 years back.”

The affairs of the AMMA were going peacefully, when in December an election to a few posts to the executive committee saw feathers being ruffled. A few people including Vijay Babu contested the elections and some of the candidates fielded by Mohanlal lost. Since then it has been an uneasy calm and now the first salvo has been fired between Babu and Kumar.