Ever since the arrest of South Indian superstar Dileep, the egos of big-wigs in the Malayalam film industry have been hurt.
For around a quarter of a century, the industry has been controlled by a select few, including Mammootty and Mohanlal.
Through deft moves since he entered the superstar category, Dileep gained control of exhibitor and production organisations. His downfall came at a time when he had even overtaken his more popular senior colleagues.
While Mohanlal and Mammootty have their own production houses, they preferred to play second fiddle and they did it discreetly by getting things done through their trusted aides. Dileep, however, had his own strategy. He deployed it directly without allowing aides to take control of all the arms of the industry — be it acting, distribution, production and also the exhibitors’ body.
It was his direct approach strategy that helped him rise to the top. But things went sour after he was arrested in connection with the kidnapping of a hugely popular actress in Kochi in February.
The first to be affected by his arrest have been the films with which he was directly associated. These include Ram Leela, a film that has cost its producer Rs250 million (Dh14.3 million).
This film was all set to be released, but following Dileep’s arrest it appears to have been shelved, leaving the producer in a tight spot.
Two other films where he plays the lead have also come to a halt, leaving the producer and the two debutant directors in disarray. Superstitions play a big role, especially for debutants, in this film industry.
The abduction of the actress has also taken a toll on Mammootty and Mohanlal, as their “intelligent silence” on the crime has come under attack on social media.
Mohanlal, who has always attracted a lot of attention through his blog posts about social and environment issues, has maintained a stoic silence on the abduction. His silence appears to have taken the sheen off his completed film Villain, which is now set for an Onam festival release in the last week of August.
Mammootty, through his stature, has always been a key player in the Malayalam film industry. Though popular comedian and character artist Innocent is the president of the actors’ body — Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes (Amma) — its control has always been in the hands of Mammootty.
But after upcoming superstar Prithviraj and a group of youngsters put their foot down on the Dileep episode at a hurriedly called executive meeting of Amma at Mammootty’s house soon after the actor’s arrest, both Mammootty and Mohanlal appeared to be shocked. Prithviraj demanded that Dileep be suspended or else he would deal with the issue in his own way.
It was this tough stand taken by Prithviraj, who has not forgotten the ill-treatment meted out to his actor father Sukumaran, a contemporary of Mammootty and Mohanlal in the early ‘90s — that helped him win eventually, when the decision to suspend Dileep was announced “unwillingly” by Mammootty after the meeting.
With the police now calling in more and more actors for statements in the abduction case, the stock of those in the film industry has taken a never-before beating. The public, who made these actors achieve stardom, appears to have developed an aversion to the murky happenings in the industry as new and unsavoury stories have kept emerging since Dileep’s arrest.
The local vernacular media and social media have been keeping a close watch on the ongoing probe, and with every new development in the case, the skeletons in the cupboards of the Kerala film industry are tumbling out one by one. This appears to have left the entire industry tantalisingly poised and it remains to be seen if there would be a cleansing process, which has already been long delayed.
