MACTA, the only trade union of directors and technicians of Malayalam cinema has decided to restart talks on the Dileep - Thulasidas issue that is now likely to lead to an imminent showdown between various organizations of the industry.

MACTA will write to AMMA, the artists association about its willingness to start a fresh talk on the issue. This decision was reached in a meeting of the representatives of the 19 independent unions under the MACTA that was convened to discuss the matter, yesterday.

MACTA president Vinayan also made it clear that even though they dislike to take this issue into an open fight, they are not moving back from the decisions that they took last week. If an agreeable settlement on the matter will not be reached, then no MACTA member will cooperate with Dileep's movies in the near future.

The issue all started with director Thulasidas's grouse that a few years back Dileep had taken an advance from him to do a film, but now the actor was repeatedly refusing to start the movie. Recently after the big debacle of Thulasidas's ‘College Kumaran’, Dileep even refused to meet him and is said to have made unkind remarks about the director's capabilities.

Following this complaint, MACTA has earlier decided to impose a ban on Dileep's movies. AMMA, the artist association stood firm supporting Dileep, who maintained that he had received the payment from the producer and is ready to work for him in his next film, but not with Thulasidas.

Meanwhile, the association of producers who are in the need of stars than technicians, jumped into the fray challenging MACTA's ban announcing that directors have no right to ban stars. MACTA President director Vinayan then clarified that it had never called for a ban and had only forwarded Thulasidas's letter to AMMA.

With all these intense happenings, the coming week seems to be one with a lot of activity in the trade union circles of the industry.