AMMA President: Actor Shwetha Menon has been elected as the first female president of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA), following months of conjecture and controversy.

AMMA President’s Background:

The election outcome came more than a year after actor Mohanlal, AMMA’s former president, resigned in August 2024. He, along with the entire 17-member executive committee, stepped down in response to mounting sexual harassment claims in the Malayalam film industry, as the Justice K. Hema Committee report noted.

The Kerala government commissioned the study to examine women’s working conditions in Mollywood. The Justice Hema Committee concluded that 10 to 15 male producers, directors, and performers held overwhelming power, exposing long-standing problems in the industry. The state government later released the 235-page report in a redacted form and formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe issues raised by several female performers. Actor Unni Mukundan resigned as AMMA’s treasurer in January 2025, citing mounting work stress and its harmful effects on his mental health.

Who is Shwetha Menon?
Shwetha Menon is known for her performances in popular films like Salt N Pepper, Rathinirvedham and Kalimannu. Apart from that she is a beauty pageant titleholder. She has won Femina Miss India Asia Pacific 1994. She has not just proved herself in Malayalam industry, she has also acted in several hindi, Telugu, Tamil movies also.

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Shwetha Menon Controversy:

The Kerala High Court halted proceedings last week on a formal complaint filed against Shwetha Menon under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act and Section 67 of the Information Technology Act. The complaint accused her of disseminating or releasing explicit sequences from some of her earlier movies and commercials. Menon filed a motion to quash the FIR, and Justice V. G. Arun granted a temporary stay. The court acknowledged merit in her attorney’s argument but noted that the authorities had not taken the necessary steps before sending the complaint for inquiry.

The court stated that no such process took place, given the brief time frame in which the complainant submitted the petition and the police received it. The registry, before forwarding the complaint to the police for inquiry, requested a report from the Chief Judicial Magistrate’s Court in Ernakulam about the process followed.

The High Court also sent notifications to Martin Menachery, the complainant, and the state. Menachery alleged that Shwetha Menon acted in pornographic films and a condom commercial for financial gain. In her appeal, Menon argued that the accusations were “mala fide” and that the offenses cited in the FIR did not apply to her. She further clarified that all the films mentioned in the complaint, Kalimannu, Rathinirvedham, and Paleri Manikyam, had already received the necessary certification and censorship. She also highlighted that her performance in Paleri Manikyam earned her the Kerala State Award for Best Actress.

Menon added that the censor board had approved the condom advertisement years earlier. She called the claim that she knew about the operation of porn websites “ridiculous and inherently defamatory.” Her plea argued that the accusations lacked evidence and were made in a “heartless and careless manner.”

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