KOCHI: The ban imposed on actor Thilakan by the Film Employees Federation of Kerala (FEFKA) was lifted on Friday. FEFKA general secretary and director B Unnikrishnan told reporters here that the decision was taken under no pressure.
"The FEFKA is an organisation of film technicians and Thilakan is not a member of it. So we haven't informed Thilakan officially about the lifting of the ban," he said.
Thilakan was ousted from the Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes (AMMA) citing indiscipline and later by the FEFKA following the actor's accusation that he was removed from a film owing to the pressures from the FEFKA.
Later ATMA (Association of Television Media Artistes) also followed suit by passing a resolution that its members were unwilling to cooperate with Thilakan. The actor was then replaced in a television serial which was to begin shooting.
ATMA's decision was in response to Thilakan's outburst against its president Ganesh Kumar.
Thilakan was to play an important role in the Hollywood film Dam 999 but was replaced, following a notice from the FEFKA stating that if Thilakan acted in the film, the association would boycott it.
The director of the film Sohan Roy said he was forced to look for a substitute when it was obvious that the shooting might be disrupted. Thilakan was later replaced by Rajit Kapur in the film.