FEFKA General Secretary B Unnikrishnan Acknowledges Existence of Casting Couch in Malayalam Film Industry

The director and general secretary of the Film Employees Federation of Kerala (FEFKA), B Unnikrishnan, in an interview, opened up about the findings of the Justice K Hema Committee report. During a conversation with Matrubhumi, he denied the existence of ‘power groups’ in the Malayalam film industry. However, he admitted that the casting couch exists.
“They often work together on several projects back-to-back, and naturally, everyone tries to align themselves with them to get opportunities. However, such alliances are based on commercial interests. But there cannot be a secret lobby of different cinema-related organisations which decide who should be isolated; the industry will not be able to function,” he said.
He noted that such alliances were not limited to the Malayalam film industry alone. Unnikrishnan further stated that to deny the existence of the casting couch in Mollywood would be to ‘deny reality’.
He said, “Claiming that there is no casting couch in Malayalam cinema would be ignoring reality. Instances of casting couches in Malayalam cinema have been seen and heard about many times. This issue exists in every industry. We should take a stand against this practice in Malayalam cinema. While we might wish for a perfect, utopian future, achieving that ideal is very challenging.”
Earlier, Unnikrishnan’s position was challenged by the director Vinayan as he wrote a letter to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan about it. He did so on the basis that the Competition Commission of India had penalized Unnikrishnan for engaging in unfair trade practices.