The issue was the mass killing of Tamils in Sri Lanka. Leading stars - including Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan - were on a one-day fast at Nadigar Sangam in the heart of Chennai in 2013. But some of the protestors, such as veteran actor Nasser and young heroes Vishal, Karthi and Arya, did not just ponder over the plight of Sri Lankan Tamils that day. They were also concerned about the state of the fast venue: the one acre property of the South India Film Artistes' Association (Sifaa), which itself resembled a "warfield" strewn with bramble and weeds.

Two years later, this Sifaa property has become a burning issue in the coming elections to the top office bearers' posts in the 63-year-old film, theatre and TV actors' association.

The October 18 election has divided the south Indian film industry, which makes nearly 1,000 films a year, including Malayalam, Kannada and Telugu films, and which prides itself on being a close-knit family. One side is led by Nasser and Vishal, who call themselves the Pandavar Ani (or the Pandavas' group), and are backed by actors such as Kamal Haasan and Khusbhoo.

The other side is led by Sifaa incumbent president R. Sarath Kumar, a former lead actor and MLA, and his brother-in-law, senior actor and current Sifaa secretary Radha Ravi. Sarath Kumar has been president for three consecutive terms at Sifaa, elections to which are held every three years.

The election campaign is fierce, with allegations being traded by the two factions. Sarath Kumar has called Kamal Haasan "ungrateful" because Sifaa had intervened to help get his controversial film Vishwaroopam released. Directors' and producers' associations tried to settle the issue amicably but didn't succeed. "Now there is no turning back," a director-actor says.

The genesis of this war goes back to the time when Sifaa, with Sarath Kumar as president, entered into an agreement with SPI Cinemas Pvt. Ltd, which operates many multiplexes in the south, to lease the association's property to it for a period of 29 years and 11 months after paying a refundable deposit of Rs 1.44 crore, according to a copy of the lease. SPI cinemas would have to pay Rs 24 lakh as monthly lease rent after constructing a multiplex on the property. The existing building was demolished in 2011.

But in 2012, Sifaa member Poochi Murugan filed a civil suit in the Madras High Court alleging financial irregularities and claiming that Sarath Kumar and Radha Ravi had inked this deal without prior approval from the general body committee of the Nadigar Sangam. "All is not well" in Sifaa, the judge said, finding prima facie truth in the allegations.

Nasser, who is running for the post of Sifaa president, says that they decided to contest the election because Sarath Kumar refused to provide them with clear answers to their questions about why the sprawling place was lying undeveloped since 2011.

"We wanted to know if there was a stay on developing the property and when he gave us no clear answers we felt there was something fishy. As a member, why cannot I ask questions or get angry? There is no mention of providing any space for Sifaa in the new building. My question is why cannot they cancel the lease with SPI and allow us to rebuild the building ourselves and start generating revenue for the association and work for the benefit of the actors," he asks.

Sifaa's original building was imbued with history, say members. Constructed with great difficulty by stalwarts such as M.G. Ramachandran, Sivaji Ganesan and S.S. Rajendran, with members pooling in small amounts, the building housed a preview theatre (where films were censored) and an auditorium where weddings, social events or shootings were conducted.

It has not been an easy ride for the Nasser group. They had to move the high court to postpone the election date and to acquire the list of the association's 3,148 members.

"There was no clarity on the members' list either, and we had to go to court to get the list," says Vishal, who is contesting for the general secretary's post. "We found 250 bogus names which have been deleted now," he adds.

Poochi Murugan, a DMK functionary who was once an actor, says that there are "financial irregularities" in the SPI deal. "We are against the monopoly and dictatorship of the two men running the Nadigar Sangam for so many years," he says. "The president's post is a coveted and prestigious post once held by MGR and NTR," Nasser adds. "But Radha Ravi and Sarath ruled it like a fiefdom."

But Sarath Kumar, who heads a local political party called the All India Samathuva Makkal Katchi, seems supremely confident of winning the elections on the basis of the work that his team has done for the benefit of actors.

The team, he holds, "sorted out" disputes for big artistes and gave medical and educational help for "unfortunate, poor" actors. "Go ask Vishal if I am going to win the elections. He seems to know I will not," a troubled Sarath Kumar says. He has even filed a defamation suit against Vishal.

The Nasser-led faction has released a 42-point manifesto, promising to resolve the legal issues obstructing the development of the property and cancelling the SPI lease, besides appointing more members on the trust, setting up a database of artists, regulating the membership fee structure, investigating fraud, and providing health benefits and care for aged actors.

"We want change," Vishal affirms. "And the association needs an address, a place to function from," he says.

Vishal, incidentally, is being accused by his opponents of taking on Sarath Kumar for "personal" reasons. The actor is reportedly in a relationship with Sarath Kumar's daughter from his first wife. "I don't think senior actors will back me because of my personal agenda," he says.

The electoral battle, some believe, is a symbol of change. Actor-director Vasu stresses that the Tamil film industry has become so large with many newcomers in the fray that it cannot remain in the control of one group any more.

"The old order has to give way, it will happen automatically," he says. There is, however, anxiety among seniors in the industry whether the young lot is getting carried away, calling themselves Pandavas and acting in an "immature" fashion. But at the end of the day, Vasu says, everyone will get together after the elections and the feud will be buried.

And it will be back to the business of making movies.