Shwetha Menon | Madam president

Actor Shwetha Menon has broken the glass ceiling in the Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes (AMMA) after being elected as its first woman president.

Since its inception in 1994, the actors’ body in the Malayalam film industry never had a woman as its president or general secretary. The 51-year-old defeated senior actor Devan to clinch the lead post in a keen electoral race held on August 15. She has a trusted lieutenant in actor Kukku Parameswaran, who was elected as the first woman general secretary of the association.

The election to the 17-member executive committee was necessitated after the previous committee led by its president and actor Mohanlal stepped down on August 27, 2024, following the release of the Hema Committee report on the problems faced by women in the Malayalam film industry. The committee was disbanded as allegations of sexual abuse and misbehaviour were raised against its members, including the office-bearers.

Born in Chandigarh as the daughter of an Indian Air Force official, Shwetha entered the tinsel town in 1991 after she was paired opposite actor Mammootty in the movie Anaswaram. She shot into national fame after she won the Femina Miss India Asia Pacific title in 1994 and became the Gladrags female supermodel in the same year.

She sizzled in ad films and walked the ramp with elan before trying her luck in Bollywood in 1997 through the movie Ishq. Some of her Hindi movies included Asoka, Maqbool and Corporate. Her performance as Cheeru in director Ranjith’s Paleri Manikyam: Oru Pathira Kolapathakathinte Katha won her the Kerala State Film Award for the Best Actress in 2009. She repeated her stellar performance in 2011 and won the best actress in the Kerala Film Award for her portrayal of Maya, a dubbing artiste and foodie, in Aashiq Abu’s Salt N’ Pepper. She has worked in over 100 movies in Malayalam, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu, besides hosting various TV shows.

She has had her share of controversies in her over three-decade-old career. In November 2013, she lodged a police complaint alleging that then Congress MP N. Peethambara Kurup had physically misbehaved with her. She later withdrew it after he tendered an apology. She received brickbats from a section of viewers after she allowed her delivery to be recorded on camera and use the footage in filmmaker Blessy’s Kalimannu in which she played the lead role. The Kerala High Court, which heard the matter, refused to intervene saying the actor had consented to the shooting of her delivery and there was no violation of her fundamental right.

Illegal bans

She never ruffled feathers with the protracted male-dominated leadership in the association. However, she did not remain mute after the Hema panel report was published while asserting that she had also faced illegal bans. She resigned from the Internal Complaints Committee of the association, along with actors Maala Parvathi and Kukku Parameswaran in 2022 following the reluctance of then leadership to take action against actor-producer Vijay Babu in a case registered by the Kochi city police on charges of alleged rape of a young woman actor and revealing the identity of the survivor.

Just a week before the election, a First Information Report (FIR) was registered against her by the Kochi city police under Section 67 A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, on a complaint lodged by a native of Ernakulam “for making financial gains through her roles in movies having alleged vulgar and obscene content”. Speculations were rife that the complaint was allegedly aided by her detractors from within the association. The actor heaved a sigh of relief after the Kerala High Court stayed the proceedings in connection with the FIR.

Despite the scenes of jubilation over the election of women in lead roles in the association, the way forward may not be a cakewalk for her in view of the internal rift and mud-slinging witnessed ahead of the election. The fissures within the organisation seem deep and will require her to pull out all the stops to stay afloat.