Apart from Mahabali, Onam is now also a time when M-town actors visit the Malayali households through their movies and special chat shows on various TV channels. For years, this has been routine. However, recent reports suggested that Malayalis might have to celebrate the festive season this year sans the celebrities, with Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes (AMMA) deciding to boycott TV programmes after the media strongly questioned their stand on the actress assault case.
AMMA’s general secretary Edavela Babu told us that the organisation has not “officially” asked its members to boycott the Onam TV programmes. “However, there are many actors among us who have decided to stay away from media including the Onam programmes. That is their personal choice. For instance, Nivin Pauly has made it clear that he will not be asking for media support anymore. A lady had also written on Facebook that she is relaxed now that she doesn’t have to watch the filthy conversations of movie stars on TV during Onam. We agree; why make the audience listen to our murky banter?” he says, sardonically.
On the other side, Malayalam channels have not yet received any intimation from stars desisting from attending TV programmes and hence shows have been already been planned for Onam with them.
Officials from Amrita TV, which airs Mohanlal’s small screen venture Lal Salam, confirms that there will two special episodes of the show for Onam, featuring several stars. “Apart from that, we will also have other exclusive interviews of actors and other special programmes. We haven’t heard anything about them not attending these programmes,” adds an official, on condition of anonymity.
With several movies featuring stars such as Nivin, Mammootty, Mohanlal, and Prithviraj lined up for release during the festive season, channels are also gearing up for promo programmes with the cast of these movies.
A spokesperson of Mazhavil Manorama says that the team is confident that actors will be part of their Onam programmes. “Even after the arrest of Dileep in the actress assault case, celebrities have been part of our shows to promote their movies. In fact, last week the cast of E and Crossroad had come to the studio,” the official says. “We are also conducting a stage show at Kozhikode to commemorate 50 years of director Hariharan, and all actors are associated with it.”
While the rumours suggested that actors were displeased with the reporting of media on the actress assault issue, an official from Asianet, on condition of anonymity, says that they have not faced any flak from movie stars and their preparations for Onam are progressing as planned.
“We have already fixed our programmes and are expecting Mammootty and Jayaram as their films are releasing during Onam. So far, none of the actors have conveyed they any displeasure,” the source says.
Flowers TV has an equally eclectic line up with interviews of actors Dhanush, Prithviraj, Kunchacko Boban, Isha Talwar and Narain. “All the interviews are part of their movie promotions, for instance, Prithviraj’s interview is titled Adam Joante Onam. While this year we do not have any Onam special show with the stars, we do have actors such as Tovino Thomas and Suraj Venjaramoodu as guests in regular shows,” says the official.
Pointing out the holes in AMMA’s flimsy stance, the spokesperson of Kairali TV says that actors will have to depend on the small screen as it plays a big role in film promotions, especially when it comes to drawing the family audience to the theatre.
“It is very unlikely that they will want the actress assault case to get in the way of promoting their films. I do not think they can afford to skip TV promotions,” he says, adding that the actors like Asif Ali and Maniyanpilla Raju will be part of the upcoming episodes of JB Junction.
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