Kochi: Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes (AMMA chief Mohanlal today said AMMA was willing to hold talks with enraged female actors accusing the outfit of bias against them and siding with Dileep, accused of sexual abuse of an actor.

He told reporters at Ernakulam Press Club rhat AMMA would hold talks with the aggrieved members of Women in Cinema Collective (WCC) after convening an executive committee meeting.
Dileep is still not in AMMA. Dileep was expelled by a short team of executive committee last year which was not legally tenable. It was to deal with the matter at larger level and the general body meeting was convened when the majority spoke in favour of Dileep.

No one at the meeting opposed it. The decision of the general body could have been different if the members of the WCC had attended it and made their point.

Mohanlal expressed regret for banning entry of media inside the general body meeting. AMMA should also have briefed media about the deliberation.

He said AMMA had received resignation of only Bhavana and Remya Nambeesan.It had also not received any complaints of actors being denied opportunities to its members in films by Dileep.

He said the outfit was with the victim of alleged sexual abuse.

The allegation that male actors called the shots in AMMA was baseless, Mohanlal said. There were 248 male members and 236 female members.

About allegation of staging a controversial skit by AMMA, he said it was made by female members of the outfit. There was no need to read too much into the skit which was only a black humour, he said.

He said veteran actor the late Tilakan was his good friend and had helped him a lot.