Vijay Babu to stay away from AMMA executive committee

Malayalam film producer and actor Vijay Babu will "temporarily stay away" from the executive committee of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA) in light of the rape allegations levelled against him by a young female actor.

The AMMA executive committee, which met on Sunday to take a decision on the possible action against the accused actor, has "accepted his request".

AMMA general secretary Edavela Babu told The Hindu that the actor had sent a letter to the organisation saying that he will temporarily stay away until his innocence is proven as he "does not wish to bring disrepute to the organisation due to the allegations".

The AMMA, which was rumoured to be considering the ouster of Mr. Babu from the executive committee, desisted from such a step.

The silence and inaction of the film organisations after the rape allegations were levelled against Mr. Babu had led to a huge uproar, with the Women in Cinema Collective (WCC) demanding AMMA to suspend his membership. They had said that this silence from trade associations came in spite of the recent judgement of the Kerala High Court directing them to implement the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act 2013 in the Malayalam film industry, in letter and spirit.

Mr. Babu was initially slapped with a case for rape by the Ernakulam south police on a petition by an upcoming actor, who had acted in one of the films produced by his production company and was released on an OTT platform last year. The second case was registered under IPC Section 228A (disclosure of the identity of the victim in certain offences) after he had gone on Facebook live revealing the name of the survivor.