CHENNAI: The Tamil Film Producers’ Council (TFPC) office in T Nagar became a battlefield Wednesday morning as a group of producers, including AL Azhagappan, T Siva, Suresh Kamatchi, and SV Sekhar, locked the office. Kathiresan, honorary secretary, was on the ground to act as a peacemaker, but failed to appease the opposition group.
The group of producers put forth 18 points to explain their discontent with the current management and why they wanted TFPC president Vishal to resign immediately. Among their complaints were alleged mismanagement of funds and unkept promises.
Their chief complaint, however, was the failure to conduct an Annual General Body Meeting. According to TFPC bylaws, a meeting has to be held by September 30 every year to present accounts, and take permission for activities of the next year. The meeting, last held on December 10, 2017, was abandoned halfway.
Matters appear to have come to a head because of the Ilaiyaraaja concert scheduled for February which is alleged to have been fixed without the council’s approval.
“We think there is a lot of mismanagement... how can one person take decisions on behalf of us all?” T Siva asked, alleging that Vishal was running the TFPC to the ground.
Producer AL Azhagappan told media that over 1,300 producers were present in the committee.
“With just a phone call, we were able to gather this crowd of 250-300 people. Imagine how much angst these people have? We want a new attack committee (a temporary committee with decision-making powers) to be formed that will act as stewards while election preparations happen for March 2019,” he said.
A group, comprising of Suresh Kamatchi, T Siva and Satya Jyothi Thyagarajan, led by director Bharathiraaja, met Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and obtained an appointment to meet him on Thursday.
They are expected to urge him to dismiss the TFPC office bearers. Meanwhile, Vishal and the office bearers filed a complaint at the Pondy Bazaar Police station against the producers who locked the TFPC offices at T Nagar and Anna Salai.