Vishal should resign: Members at Tamil Film Producers Council meet

Vishal is the president of Tamil Film Producers Council

The general body meeting of the Tamil Film Producers Council ended abruptly after members, including Cheran started demanding the resignation of Vishal, who is the President of the council. According to a report in Times of India, several members claimed that Vishal has irked the state government by deciding to contest the RK Nagar by-poll elections. Notably, the producers get a subsidy from the state government, which is also the regulating authority on ticket prices and fixing taxes amid other things.

“The producers’ council has never opposed the government. When some questioned the office-bearers over Vishal’s decision to contest the RK Nagar bypoll, Vishal said the question will be addressed later. Vishal asked for the meeting to proceed as per the agenda. Then there was a ruckus and the meeting came to an end,” said producer Rajan. The agenda included topics such as suicide of co-producer Ashok Kumar, problems addressed by small producers, and satellite rights.

According to the report, director-producer Cheran who has been on the vanguard of the protest against Vishal said that he had refused to answer them. “He has refused to answer us. He has lost all authority to speak on behalf of producers.” Cheran had protested, calling out for his resignation, when Vishal submitted his nomination papers to contest the elections. Subsequently after a lot of confusion, Vishal’s nomination was rejected by the Election Commission.

“When a former office-bearer like S Radhakrishnan (who runs Maruthi Films) wanted to pose a question, the organisers refused to give him the microphone,” said veteran T Rajendar. He recalled that Radhakrishnan, during his tenure in the previous term, had written to a private TV channel demanding pending payment for satellite rights of Vaalu (2015). “Radhakrishnan wanted to ask Vishal if he was working on recovering the pending dues from TV channel. But he was not allowed,” Rajendran was quoted as saying.

On the other hand, Vishal claimed that the protesting members used inappropriate language. He further added that they have submitted accounts for all money used by the office-bearers.