CINTAA: Padmini Kolhapure wins with 604 votes amid legal row

Mumbai: The Cine and TV Artistes’ Association has delivered an election result and a parallel legal dispute in the same week. Veteran actor Padmini Kolhapure topped the executive committee election held on October 20 with 604 votes, while Poonam Dhillon finished a close second with 601.

At a Mumbai press conference on Wednesday, president Upasana Singh and treasurer Nagma Morarji said the legal fight over the association’s governance has gone their way so far, and framed the battle as one over artists’ money and transparency rather than chairs.

What Upasana Singh and Nagma Morarji said

Upasana Singh said the Dindoshi Court and the High Court have so far ruled in their favour, and invoked the phrase Satyameva Jayate. “Our only motto is Satyameva Jayate. If we are truthful, we ought to win, and we have won,” she said, according to the Times of India.

She alleged the earlier executive committee ignored issues such as long working hours, late payments and conveyance allowances. She also argued that CINTAA did not follow its own constitutional rule that 20 per cent of funds received must be spent on artists’ welfare.

Nagma Morarji said the association’s funds, assets and records belong to its members, not to any individual. She said over 10,000 members are linked to CINTAA, and that records have accumulated since 1958.

The fight over the election timeline

The two sides differ sharply on how the election was held. Morarji said elections were slated for the 12th, and a court order on the 11th upheld FWICE’s authority to conduct them, but results were not to be announced until the 26th. She alleged the rival group held elections on the 20th and declared results on the 21st, opened unauthorised bank accounts and moved files out of the office.

Her camp has now filed a contempt petition in the High Court. The dispute also involves names like Poonam Dhillon and Padmini Kolhapure, and has put the association’s financial accountability in the spotlight.

CINTAA election results, top of the list

• Padmini Kolhapure: 604 votes
• Poonam Dhillon: 601 votes
• Rakesh Bedi: 575 votes
• Kanwarjit Paintal: 548 votes
• Chandraprakash Thakur: 514 votes

Actors Anil Kapoor and Rakesh Bedi were among those who cast votes. The full list runs through names such as Abhay Bhaargava, Ghanshyam Shrivastav, Jaya Bhattacharya and Rohit Roy.

Why this matters for film and TV artists

CINTAA is not a glamour footnote; it is the body that film and television artists look to for welfare, dues and protection when work dries up. A leadership dispute over fixed deposits, bank accounts and welfare spending lands directly on working actors.

For fans, the election is a reminder that the industry’s off-screen institution matters as much as its on-screen faces. The courtroom fight is likely to outlast the vote count.

Source: The Times of India