Kerala producers' body expels Sandra Thomas alleging indiscipline

Kochi: Noted woman producer Sandra Thomas has been expelled from the Kerala Film Producers' Association (KFPA) on charges of breaching organisational discipline and norms.

Thomas had questioned the silence of film organisations, including KFPA, on the startling revelations in the recently released Justice Hema Committee Report about alleged harassments and exploitations being faced by women in Malayalam cinema.

Reacting to her views, the association had served her with show cause notice.

An executive committee meeting of the KFPA, convened on October 28, resolved that Thomas had been continuously breaching discipline and raising baseless allegations against committee members. Her response to the show cause notice was also not satisfactory, the KFPA said in a recent letter to Thomas.

"So, it has been decided to cancel the membership of Sandra Thomas Productions and of you, as a person who represents the firm," KFPA secretary B Rajesh said in a letter issued on October 28, which came to the public domain on Tuesday.

Reacting to this, Thomas told the media that she had been expelled by the association despite giving a detailed explanation.

"Many women have been coming out with revelations in the wake of the release of the Justice Hema Committee report. I feel they (the association) have expelled me with an intention to make silent all such women," she told reporters here.

She said if the experience of a producer like her is this, what would be the situation of a technician or artist who approaches such organisations with a complaint.

Thomas had recently lodged a police complaint against nine office bearers of the association, accusing them of behaving in an objectionable manner during a meeting after inviting her to resolve a film production-related dispute.

Though the Ernakulam Central police booked them in October over her complaint, the producers had rejected the charges.