Film producers lift ban on rebel actor

KOCHI: Malayalam film producers lifted a ban on young actor Shane Nigam after arriving at a compromise during talks initiated by Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes ( AMMA) here on Tuesday. According to reports, the outspoken actor, who agreed to pay Rs3.2 million to the producers as compensation, will attend the shooting of Veyil on Thursday.

Kerala film producers association had demanded a compensation of Rs10 million for disrupting the shooting schedule of two films, Veyil and Qurbani, in which Shane appeared in lead roles.

AMMA general secretary Edavela Babu said the compensation amount will be sourced from Shane’s remuneration.

The four-month-old stand-off came to an end following the intervention of AMMA president Mohanlal who said the issue was settled amicably at the executive meeting held in Kochi on Tuesday. Shane will join the Qurbani crew after March 31. The executive committee meeting also decided to introduce a model code of conduct for actors.

The inauguration of the new office of AMMA will be in June, Babu said.

Shane expressed willingness to pay the compensation amount after he was summoned to the meeting. Following talks, Mohanlal said that the actor has agreed to pay the compensation.

This information was conveyed to the Producers’ Association. He also expressed hope that everything would end up well so that Shane can resume his work soon.

Shane stirred up a controversy last year after the actor posted a Facebook video, alleging that he was facing death threats from Veyil producer Joby George. Followed by this, Joby held a press meet and accused the actor of breaching the contract by changing his appearance for another movie while in the middle of shooting Veyil. Though the issue was resolved after the intervention of AMMA, the actor accused the film crew of giving him emotional stress by delaying the shoot.

As a sign of protest against the producer, the actor shaved off his hair.

As a retaliatory measure, all his upcoming three films were scrapped and the producers joined hands against him and imposed the total ban.

A comment by the actor that the producers suffered from mental illness worsened the situation after which producers demanded Rs10 million as compensation.

They also got in touch with South Indian Film Producers Association seeking ban on Shane. The actor had a po log is ed to the producers earlier. In a letter to Joby, Shane expressed his readiness to cooperate with the film and said that he wanted to complete his work for the movie. He also stated in the letter that he would not demand any payment for the work.