The South Indian Cine & TV Stunt Artistes Union has said that they have removed stunt directors Anbumani and Arivumani from the union, for violation of rules.
In a statement, the union’s president Super Sundharam said, “Anbumani and Arivumani, who have been working as stunt director in the industry, have violated the union rules regarding stunt performances. The two have, under the pretext of rehearsals, been choreographing actors to perform dangerous, rope-based action sequences for films such as Madras and Kabali. This is in violation of the rules of the Union. The union’s governing body has therefore decided to remove them from the basic membership.”
Earlier in September, the brothers were unceremoniously thrown out of the union while later the Madras High Court granted an injunction against the removal of stunt directors.
Talking about the dispute to Silverscreen, Anbu told, “We were planning to contest for the post of president of the Stunt Union in the upcoming elections. But the current president Somasundar and secretary Manikandan did not want us competing for the post. They tried to level all sorts of false charges on us. We train stunt artistes in our offices before going to shoot a film. We do this so that they are well equipped for the scene. But, one day, Somasundar and Manikandan told us that what we were doing is illegal and that we should ask the producer to pay.”
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“They simply chose to remove us from the union. They did not give us any reason, and we were not even asked to make a case for ourselves. That is when Lokesh Kanagaraj (director of Maanagaram) suggested that perhaps we should approach the Madras HC,” he added.
Anbu and Arivu, who go by the screen name of Anbariv, have worked for film like Madras, Kabali, Mercury, Maanagaram and others. They are currently working on Sivakarthikeyan’s upcoming science fiction film with Ravikumar, and Prabhu Deva’s Pon Manickavel, filming for which has been postponed.