The Producers'Association has formed a committee led by director-producer VinayanThe Competition Commission of India (CCI) slapped a penalty on film associations in Kerala Friday for “conduct and practice of these associations in contravention of the Competition Law”.
The order comes after film director Vinayan approached the CCI alleging anti-competitive conduct by the associations. The associations were charged with coercing many actors, technicians, producers, financiers, to not work or associate with Vinayan in any of his projects.
The competition watchdog directed Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA), Film Employees Federation of Kerala (FEFKA), FEFKA Director’s Union and FEFKA Production Executive’s Union to pay a fine of Rs. 4,00,065, Rs. 85,594, Rs. 3,86,354, and Rs. 56,661 respectively.
The CCI also found five responsible office bearers Innocent, Edavela Babu, Sibi Malayil, B. Unnikrishnan and K. Mohanan to be in contravention of the Competition Act and asked them to pay a fine of Rs. 51478, Rs. 19113, Rs. 66356, Rs. 32026, Rs. 27737 respectively.
Vinayan had also alleged that this action from the associations were due to Vinayan's efforts to streamline working conditions of artists and for the initiative ‘Cinema Forum’, which envisaged collaboration between film makers and distributors to make low budget movies with new actors.
