Actor Shammi Thilakan points finger at Minister Ganesh Kumar

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A day after the Hema Commission report was released, actor Shammi Thilakan accused minister KB Ganesh Kumar of being among those who imposed an unofficial ban on his late father, actor Thilakan. Shammi told TNIE that the report had mentioned a famous actor who was banned from the industry by the powerful 15 and it was none other than his father and the president of the Association of Malayalam Television Media Artists (ATMA) who was referred to was Ganesh Kumar.

The report said that a very famous actor called the power group in the film industry ‘mafia sangham’ as they can do whatever they want. “Though he is one of the best actors in the industry whose prowess is undisputed, he could be kept out of the industry when the 10 to 15 joined hands to ban him from cinemas. The above-mentioned artiste had to leave cinema and become a serial artiste. But even there he could not escape the clutches of the powerful lobby. At that time, the president of ATMA was also a film actor,” the report said.

Shammi said Ganesh was the president of ATMA since its inception. “What the report said is true. Ganesh worked in favour of the Gang of 15, which controls the Malayalam film industry, to ban Thilakan even from serials. During a meeting of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA), a star insulted Thilakan and shouted at him, asking him to step out of the meeting. The same star came to visit my father when he was in a critical condition in the hospital. He told me that Thilakan was like a Bappa (father) to him.

They expelled Thilakan from AMMA. After my father’s death in 2018, I raised the issue of defaming Thilakan in a board meeting of AMMA. The then president Mohanlal said that the committee could take up the issue and justice should be done to Thilakan chettan. There was a view that AMMA should apologise to Thilakan. I told them to form a committee to look into the matter. But nothing happened. Later, a senior actor told me that apologising to Thilakan would damage their image,” he said.

Shammi also questioned director Vinayan’s alleged silence on the ‘power group’. “He claims that he knows the names of those persons. Why doesn’t he reveal it? Vinayan had fought his case using the ban on Thilakan and won in the Supreme Court,” Shammi said.