The Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes’ (AMMA) attempts to shake off the stains of ignominy from its star-studded body has fallen flat with the inglorious exit of its “historic” women leadership. The resignation of the 17-member executive committee of AMMA, led by president Shweta Menon and general secretary Cuckoo Parameswaran, on Sunday, in less than a year since they were elected, has exposed, once again, the structural problems embedded in the 32-year-old film fraternity forum.

Ms. Menon was elected AMMA’s president in August 2025 at a time when the Malayalam film industry as a whole was being looked down upon by almost everyone amid a series of sexual allegations against its members, triggered by the release of the Hema Committee report. The election of its first woman president amid an apparent gender audit of the organisation had helped AMMA earn some perception points despite lingering doubts over old habits.

Ms. Menon’s hard-hitting exit remark that one had to be a puppet to run the organisation and she was not ready to remain one reasserts the questions over the outfit’s patriarchal structure that refuses to crumble down. While the allegations of administrative inefficiency that led to the fall of the leadership is a different matter to be examined, the series of events that led to it reveals there were not many who wanted the ‘historic’ regime to sustain long.

AMMA was in the news for more wrong reasons than good in the recent past with its members washing a lot of their dirty laundry in public. The association had found itself in an embarrassing situation of late with a series of police complaints against a section of the members, including office-bearers. On no such occasion could the film forum resolve the matter through talks despite tall claims of fraternal bonds. The failure of the organisation to take all of its members into confidence was exposed time and again. Even an allegation of serious nature that actor Tini Tom made communal and defamatory remarks against actor Ansiba Hassan, forcing her to step down as the joint secretary, was not addressed promptly within the organisation, leaving it for the police and the court.

‘An elite club’

The organisation’s inability to act as a trade body that has to deal with issues of all natures became evident throughout the incidents. The latest episode also reasserts the association’s long-standing image as an elite club with little mechanism to resolve its internal crises. It always looked like a family that preferred to play the obedient to its father figures.

The first task cut out for the ad-hoc committee led by Ramesh Pisharody, appointed to lead the organisation till its next election, will be to take all along and put the house in order. The ad-hoc era is likely to reveal the path AMMA would like to tread towards the next elections.