Actor Mohanlal resigns as AMMA president, executive committee dissolved.

AMMA, an influential actors’ body in Malayalam film industry, and its executive committee were under severe criticism for not acting on the findings of the Justice Hema committee report. Actor Mohanlal resigned as the president of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA) while its executive committee was dissolved on Tuesday in wake of sexual assault allegations against its members including actors Siddique and Baburaj who served as the general secretary and joint secretary respectively. The film body said that a new committee will be formed after an election in two months. While Siddique had resigned as the general secretary on Sunday over allegations of sexual assault against him by a female actor, Baburaj, accused of sexual assault by a junior actor, continued to hold the post and denied the allegations. AMMA, an influential actors’ body in Malayalam film industry, and its executive committee were under severe criticism for not acting on the findings of the Justice Hema committee report. The committee had recently pointed to a systemic sexual abuse of women actors, presence of a power group that controlled the industry and poor treatment of junior actors. Actor Siddique, before stepping down from his post, had last week denied there was a “casting couch” in the industry and pointed to a few “isolated incidents” of sexual harassment. The mass resignations came a day after leading actor Prithviraj Sukumaran admitted that there were lapses on AMMA’s part in handling the report.