In a major blow in his bid to have a breakthrough in Kollywood, veteran director and producer T Rajendar has lost the election for the president of Tamil Film Producers Council (TFPC) and he had conceded the defeat to producer Murali of Sri Thenandal Films, who will be taking over the council from Vishal and his faction. 

The election for the Tamil Film Producers Council was conducted on Sunday -November 22 at Dr.MGR Janaki College of Arts and Science for Women in Chennai and the election to pick the new office bearers for the council has come at a high time when it has been surfaced with controversy for carrying out its operations without an elected body of representatives for more than a year. 

The Madras High Court had appointed former Justice M Jayachandran as the election officer to monitor the election of the council that concluded at 4 pm on Sunday. The race for the president of the council was between Simbu's father T Rajendar and Murali of Thenandal Films and amid expectations and massive coverage, the election concluded on Sunday and it was announced that the votes will be counted and results will be announced on Monday. 

According to reports, 1,050 votes were registered on Sunday. The votes were counted and it was officially announced on Monday that Murali of Sri Thenandal Films had defeated T Rajendar and won the race for the president of the producers' council. Along with Murali and Rajendar, notable producer Thenappan had also contested for the top post. The vote counting was started at 10 am on Monday and the results were announced. 

The reports say Murali had got 557 votes while T Rajendar ended up getting 337 votes whereas Thenappan had managed to get 87 votes. Murali was announced as the winner with a margin of 220 votes while T Rajendar conceded the defeat. The election was widely covered by the media where some of the top actors cum producers including Kamal Haasan and artists were seen casting their votes to elect the office bearers of the council. 

However, while Rajendar had faced a major blow, his faction has been leading in the race for the vice-president of the council. The reports stated that T Rajendar's faction will likely win the race for vice-president. The officer period of Vishal's team at the producers' council ended on April 30, 2019, and the election to elect the new office bearers has now taken place nearly after one and a half years.

The election has held at a high time when there were a deep divide and controversies around the producers' council. Earlier in September, a major group of producers had divided and formed the Tamil Film Active Producers' Association and appointed director Bharathiraja as the president of the association. While many had voiced against the new association, Bharathiraja said that the association was formed to protect the interest of active producers in the industry who are affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Like the political election, the election of the council had come under fire after there were allegations that T Rajendar's camp is distributing cash for votes. Director Aamir has admitted the grounds of money in the election and said that it was saddening that money is being involved in this election and Aamir said that he didn't vote over the allegations. During the absence of the office bearers, the operation of the council was overseen by the special officer appointed by the Tamil Nadu government.