There has been a lot of furor over actor Mohanlal lately, all stemming from the time he took office as president of the AMMA (Association of Malayalam Movie Actors). Reports suggest that State Culture and Cinema Minister AK Balan, on behalf of the Kerala government, officially extended the invite which Mohanlal accepted and is, thereby, attending the award ceremony scheduled to take place on August 8 in Thiruvananthapuram.

The whole anger over Mohanlal being a chief guest began when director Dr Biju said in a Facebook post that he would not take part in the State Awards function if an actor was made the chief guest. He had also mentioned that the recent stances adopted by AMMA were disappointing.

Several artistes and cinema organisations have been protesting against Mohanlal attending the function, with the last few days getting messier by the day. In fact, earlier this week, these artistes and organisations, comprising to over 100 of them, signed a petition stating that it was not acceptable for anyone other than the Chief Minister to give away the awards.

As for the whole furore around AMMA, Mohanlal took charge as the president in June with actor-politician Mukesh elected as the vice-president of the association, and Idavela Babu replaced Mammootty as general secretary. Actors Siddique and Jagadish had been elected as joint secretary and treasurer respectively.

One of the first decisions the new leadership took was to revoke the suspension of actor Dileep. This left the Women in Cinema Collective (WCC) seething and fuming, with them posing questions with respect to the abduction and sexual assault case of the Malayalam actress.