sexual assault case<\/a>.<\/p>\nCuckoo Parameswaran, meanwhile, emerged as Shwetha\u2019s running mate for general secretary, and actor Ansiba became joint secretary unopposed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But just as there was a general murmur of appreciation for the body of actors, with a section of the public cheering their decision to put women on top of the organisation, voices of disagreement began to rise from within. Controversy first erupted over a WhatsApp group of women in A.M.M.A. and a \u2018memory card\u2019 containing private conversations.<\/p>\n
Baburaj’s withdrawal and WhatsApp group controversy<\/p>\n
The controversy began escalating after Baburaj withdrew his nomination following opposition due to him being named in a sexual harassment case. Details of a Whatsapp group of women in the A.M.M.A. began to emerge. Actors Usha Haseena and Ponnamma Babu, both admins of the group, brought up before the media, allegations concerning a \u2018memory card.\u2019<\/p>\n
Usha told TNM that she created a WhatsApp group called Ammayude Penmakkal (Daughters of A.M.M.A.) after the last general body meeting, where it was suggested that there should be 50% representation of women in office and that there was a lack of unity among the women members. The group, she said, initially included all women in A.M.M.A., with Usha, Ponnamma Babu, and Ansiba as admins. \u201cWhen Ansiba decided to contest the elections, we made Navya Nair an admin. Now, Navya is also in the fray,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The group, which had started off well with friendly exchanges, began to change shades when Ponnamma shared a voice clip of Baburaj, Usha said. \u201cThe clip had nothing to do with elections. It was a caution to women to take timely medical treatment in light of a senior actor falling ill.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Usha, this was construed by some as an attempt to promote Baburaj\u2019s candidacy.<\/p>\n
Another conversation in the group brought up the issue of a \u2018memory card\u2019 \u2014 a recording from a 2018 meeting at the Holiday Inn in Kochi, where a small group of women actors had gathered to discuss issues in the industry. The recording was allegedly taken by Cuckoo Parameswaran, who was present at that meeting, and a copy of it was given to Edavela Babu, who was then the general secretary of the A.M.M.A. Usha and others in the WhatsApp group accused Cuckoo of using this memory card to intimidate or threaten actors named in that gathering as harassers.<\/p>\n
More issues surfaced when promotional contents posted by certain actors were deleted, and those women began to leave the group. Those who left and disagreed with Usha, Ponnamma, and others alleged that the Whatsapp group was created to favour Baburaj \u2014 a charge that Usha rejects.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The memory card incident<\/p>\n
It was amid these growing tensions that Usha took her concerns to the media, claiming Shwetha and Cuckoo were unsuitable to represent women in the association.<\/p>\n
On August 2, Usha called a press conference and related the alleged \u2018memory card\u2019 incident. According to her, the Holiday Inn meeting in 2018 was called by Cuckoo with the alleged intention of countering the Women in Cinema Collective (WCC), formed in the wake of the 2017 actor assault.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Usha said she was surprised to find less than 15 women at that gathering, when A.M.M.A. had more than 200 female members. She added that during the meeting, some women spoke up about their issues, while others kept mum upon seeing the camera. No one has since seen or heard anything about the recording, Usha alleged.\u00a0<\/p>\n
To TNM, she said she had repeatedly enquired about this recording but was assured it was in safe custody. \u201cWe were told it would be taken to the authorities concerned. But after the Hema Committee report came out in 2024, we realised it was not taken anywhere. It also did not come up before the Internal Committee that was briefly formed in A.M.M.A., of which Cuckoo was a member. So I no longer think she would be the right candidate to speak for the women in the association,\u201d Usha said.<\/p>\n
She claimed her disillusionment with Shwetha came when the actor called her and allegedly ridiculed the Hema Committee report, saying \u201cnothing would come out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The two camps<\/p>\n
Actor Maala Parvathi has emerged as a vocal supporter of Cuckoo and Shwetha, detailing in multiple social media posts what transpired in the WhatsApp group and explained her reasons for calling it a Baburaj camp. \u201cWho are they trying to protect when they say that men named in the Holiday Inn gathering are being threatened? They are not speaking for women, they are speaking for the accused men,\u201d Maala Parvathi told TNM.<\/p>\n
She has nothing against Baburaj\u2019s candidacy, except there was a general consensus that none of the men accused in the sexual harassment cases should stand for elections, she said.<\/p>\n
Parvathi began having suspicions about the purpose of the WhatsApp group when Youtuber Haider Ali appeared to know what went on within the group and began to telecast inside conversations. It had seemed as if someone was leaking the content to Haider Ali.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She said she had offered help to the women who attended the Holiday Inn meeting to raise their complaints with the police or other authorities, but the offer was rejected. She added that since 2018, the issue of the memory card had never come up in any general body meeting or before the IC, of which she was a member.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had at first thought these were silly gimmicks to win an election. But it has become serious now, with a non-bailable offence charged against Shwetha,\u201d she said, referring to a new case accusing the actor of obscene content in films and advertisements.<\/p>\n
The complaint, filed by a man claiming to be a journalist, cited scenes from Shwetha\u2019s movies released years ago, alleging that the clips were circulating on porn sites. Legal experts have questioned both the basis of the case and the court\u2019s decision to entertain it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When polls were announced in July 2025, there was an informal understanding that women should take the top…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58400,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[38482,38474,38473,38476,38484,38481,49,48,38480,75,38485,38486,27618,27624,17236,38475,9852,337,27622,38479,38478,38487,38483,38477],"class_list":["post-58399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-amma-controversy","tag-amma-elections","tag-amma-malayalam","tag-amma-women","tag-ammayude-penmakkal","tag-baburaj","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cuckoo-parameswaran","tag-entertainment","tag-hema-committee-report","tag-holiday-inn-kochi","tag-jagadish","tag-maala-parvathi","tag-malayalam-cinema","tag-memory-card","tag-mohanlal","tag-movies","tag-shwetha-menon","tag-shwetha-menon-case","tag-usha-haseena","tag-wcc","tag-whatsapp-controversy","tag-whatsapp-group"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}