CINTAA (Cine and TV Artistes Association) saw 11 of its members resign earlier this month, following which former general secretary Upasana Singh levelled a series of allegations against the film body’s president Poonam Dhillon, and vice-president Padmini Kolhapure. In several interviews, Upasana and other former members accused Poonam and Padmini of being “dictatorial” and attempting to misappropriate CINTAA funds. Now, Padmini and Poonam have responded to the allegations and raised questions about Upasana’s conduct during her tenure as CINTAA’s general secretary.

Poonam Dhillon addresses Upasana Singh and Deepak Parashar’s allegations

Addressing the media over the weekend, Poonam Dhillon said, “I want to emphasise that this committee is legal. Even though senior actors associated with CINTAA are occupied with work, their attention and support are with the team. The recent discussions that happened were very unfortunate. The general secretary of the previous committee tried to defame CINTAA and spread rumors that have never been circulated before in the history of CINTAA. We initially kept quiet, but then we decided to speak on the matter to bring out the correct version.”

 

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Talking about Upasana Singh’s demand to dissolve the existing executive committee and hold fresh elections, Poonam recalled how Upasana and the other members had been planning the move since June. She said they decided to act just ahead of CINTAA’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) on August 15. “On August 3, I called for an emergency meeting to discuss some points. I messaged in the group. Upasanaji replied to my message saying she was very busy. I asked her to join on Zoom, but she refused. The next day, she called for a meeting with 5 members and didn’t keep the main points to be discussed on the agenda, which was illegal. As the General Secretary, she has to make the agenda after consultation with the president, so I objected to it. She had some different points about the working of the Executive Committee. Without consulting any of us, she announced a meeting, and we were stumped to see that her entire team was present on Zoom. It had members who hardly appeared in 1 or 2 meetings. 11 members joined on Zoom and asked for re-election. There is no such provision in the CINTAA constitution.”

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Poonam further added, “That day, since they were in the majority, they voted for re-elections. My office asked if this committee has been dissolved. Suddenly, she said FWICE will conduct our elections; we were in shock. We don’t have any connection with them. They don’t have the power to interfere in CINTAA’s internal matters. Upasanaji kept repeating that they would do it. She announced the committee and the election council. This was being planned since long time. We all requested them to wait till August 15.”

Padmini Kolhapure responds to Upasana Singh’s allegations of financial misconduct

Backing Poonam Dhillon’s claims, Padmini Kolhapure added, “This committee has not been dissolved. Upasanaji accused us of being dictatorial. No one can individually decide anything. Manoj Joshi and Preeti Sapruji had come to Poonamji and me first, highlighting the problems in CINTAA. They said we need to attend three meetings in a year, and the rest they will manage.” Poonam Dhillon added, “They wanted to manage everything and us to be the glamorous figures; they wanted us to be puppets.”

Padmini further said, “They wanted the staff from the accounts to be expelled, but we refused. Our idea was to understand the system first before taking any actions. When we started working, we went to the office at least 300 times. Some members wanted their photos to be highlighted in the press, but when we objected, they got offended. For Hema Malini’s show, the press conference was scheduled for 3:30 pm, where it was to be announced that Hemaji would donate Rs 5 lakh. The singers were called before that. They tried to show that we had locked them and tried to hide them from the media. Such petty things made me feel ashamed. They even accused us of cutting their photos out before sending them to the press.”

 

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Addressing the financial misconduct accusations, Padmini and Poonam said, “The treasurer said he was not allowed to speak and was not kept informed about matters. A treasurer’s signature is very important. Since he was hospitalised, we sent the office boy to sign six cheques, and when he returned, he cancelled those cheques.”

Poonam added, “He accused us of encashing his signed cheques, taking undue advantage. I want to declare that Padminiji and I have brought money into CINTAA. The total amount we have collected in CINTAA is Rs 1.70 crore. We never asked for any appreciation for this. We did for the members. Whenever we went to CAWT for medical assistance, they would say they didn’t have funds, so we collected funds for them. We did the RK show in December 2024. We were going to give the money collected to CAWT and just asked them to pay for the expenses behind the auditorium and other things. First, the chairperson agreed; later, she refused. We collected over Rs 1 crore for CINTAA and around Rs 74 lakhs for CAWT within the first year. So did we come here to swindle the money? We cashed in on our friendships to collect these funds. We have 9000 members; out of them, 2500 are needy. They don’t have work, so this was to help them. They accused us of doing some fraud in the RK show and using the money for our NGO.”

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They have frozen CINTAA’s bank accounts: Poonam Dhillon

Poonam Dhillon and Padmini Kolhapure also revealed how Upasana Singh went on to freeze the association’s official bank accounts, leaving daily functioning stranded. Padmini said, “What proof does she have that the labor commissioner banned us from hosting an AGM, or that the committee is dissolved. Putting FWICE at the forefront, Upasanaji is writing letters to our staff. FWICE is getting involved in our matters for no reason. They have no rights in CINTAA. We have our independent constitution.”

Poonam added, “The most painful thing was that all the bank accounts were frozen. The condition was such that members had no milk for tea in the office. After financially helping CINTAA, would we loot it? Deepak Parasharji said he had to protect CINTAA’s money. Upasana ji recently said that she is trying to save the members’ money. I want to ask Upasana Singh and Deepak Parashar how much funding they have managed to arrange for CINTAA, barring a few thousand or lakhs in the 2.5 years of their tenure. 9-10 actors need financial help. We don’t have the money to sanction it since they have frozen our accounts. They have not used the letterhead to write to the bank. Rather, they teamed up with FWICE to freeze these accounts.”

 

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They later shared that a new committee of 15 members has been inducted at CINTAA following the rightful process. They also added, “Upasanaji would write 12 pages long minutes of the meeting highlighting the fights in the meeting and miss out the decisions that were taken. We kept explaining to her, but she didn’t understand. Upasana had so many issues with us that when we extended the tenure to 3 years, she filed a complaint to make sure the decision was reversed, and we had to step down from our post. She kept saying she brought us into CINTAA, but we never came here to be her puppets.”