The highly-unionised movie-dom in Kerala seems headed towards yet another setback on Saturday with a vertical split in the powerful Malayalam Cine Technician’s Association (MACTA) and its associate unions.

Their latest spat is over Dileep, an actor backed by the Association of Malalayam Movie Artists (AMMA), who refused to work with Thulasidas, a director who has a strong backing from MACTA, allegedly after making a commitment.

While MACTA is the apex federation of the 19 different trade unions — one for each aspect of film making — AMMA mostly calls the shots in the industry and works like Hollywood’s Screen Actor’s Guild (SAG) where no Malayalam actor can hope to work without AMMA’s backing.

Following the spat, MACTA threatened to boycott Dileep and petitioned AMMA to intervene. With Dileep producing a fundraiser movie for the association, AMMA did not oblige its parent body. MACTA too did not back off.

But MACTA soon had the producers’ union threatening to stop funding projects if MACTA boycotted Dileep. This was a fallout of an earlier spat between MACTA and the producers when the parent union had threatened of a stir if wages of movie technicians were not doubled.

Differences cropped up in MACTA over its approach in the Dileep issue and popular director Vinayan leading a movement where majority of the members resigned. Tension between MACTA and AMMA was brewing since their inception with each trying to outdo the other — from remuneration to imposing collective restraints and work boycotts against each other.