If the existence of the film industry has always been recognized in India and by its governments, it is now

If India and its governments have recognized the existence of the film industry, they are now. The film industry made a statement to Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his stay in Mumbai for the inauguration of the film museum on the property of the Film Division in South Mumbai in December. Some concessions were requested on the GST on movie tickets and the response was instantaneous; the request has been accepted. The GST slabs were reduced from 12% to 18% for tickets costing Rs 100 and from 28% to 18% for other rates. Such a response from Delhi to a request from the film industry was an unprecedented event! The media and some critics of the film industry have tried to raise controversy by complaining that only the men had met with the prime minister and that no woman had been invited to accompany him. . Well, as far as we get the result, it's for the pleasure of both, right?

Shortly after, the movie people met with the Prime Minister and men, women and what you met in Delhi. What came out of the pictures (the selfies, as they are now called, showed the prime minister mingling freely and posing in the group as one of the crowd representatives). Jawaharlal Nehru or Indira Gandhi where she is the only one sitting on a chair and where the representatives of the film's fraternity are either standing or standing! Nehru, on the other hand, was more open; he watched movies in a local cinema in Delhi and, when he mingled with movie stars, he was tied.

All these gestures, respect and good nature are reflected on the work of the filmmakers, because they are, after all, very creative. any type of recognition counts. The national atmosphere, atmosphere and leadership play a role in driving the content. This was reflected in the genre of films made during the Nehru era (mostly romances and family encounters), the short era of Lal Bahadur Shastri (chiefly patriotic commissioned by Manoj Kumar), Indira Gandhi (anti-establishment with the protagonist giving fire to the mbades "anger in their name) and so on.
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Otherwise, filmmaking has never been considered a respectable business, forget the status of society! It has been exploited thoroughly. Cash flow was one way. Central government as well as state governments have both heavily taxed the film industry and the viewing of films. State and central governments do not encourage or subsidize film production.
The film industry as well as moviegoers were a cash cow. The entertainment tax on movie tickets was on the competing list and was the responsibility of the Crown. Most states taxed the admission rate up to 150%, while a state governed by communism such as Bengal set an admission rate that was so ridiculous that the distributor who invested in the film had difficulty in recover his rights. investment. If such a cap is needed for entry rates, it is now with the multiplexes exploiting the viewer with high entry rates, variable rates for big films and consuming any advantage that the government can extend without the transfer to the buyer.

The introduction of the GST finally brought uniformity and parity in the tax on shows and entry rates, to his surprise, even dropped on one screen. The central government has taxed the very process of making the film, from importing the negative gross stock to the output of printing, in the form of excise duties at exorbitant rates. It is amazing that the Indian film industry has not only survived, but has become the largest in the world, probably producing more films than the world gathered together! (The Indian authorities have never considered creating a factory for the manufacture of raw films.) The film industry was to be represented in Delhi prior to each annual budget, which implied a reduction in film rights. excise on the output copies. But, as a rule, the rights only increased each year, thus ruining the entire budget of a movie.

Coming back to the taxes and paperwork accumulated in the film industry, here's what we're going to do: To begin, just about everything was taxed from the launch of a movie. But the worst was the movie exhibition. A cinema hall had to have 22 licenses, renewed each year. The projection of a feature film of the 15-minute film was mandatory, except that we paid 1% of the total capacity of the house to FD for what was basically a government propaganda in power ! It did not matter that the film that the cinema projected was a huge flop and did not collect anything! Then there was the municipal tax among others like firefighters! Even worse, movie theaters could not be closed or used for other purposes, so what if the property was no longer viable! A cinema director was still required to hold back a few tickets even though the room was full of fear that distinguished personalities, such as a police chief, politician or other, would call at the last minute to get a seat! We used the term "free cards".

Worse still, the direction of the cinema was supposed to pay the tax on entertainment three days a week with the release of a new movie on Friday! No, governments did not care about averages. Repayments could take millions of dollars.

Some producers succumbed to the regime despite humiliation. The government needed movie stars to add glamor to rewards and other similar events, even though traditional commercial cinema was not in the running most of the time!

Film actors also had to raise funds whenever a calamity occurred. It is through the film fraternity rallies that a lot of money and jewelry were collected after the Indochina war. The fraternity also appeared when floods or an earthquake caused destruction. Otherwise, the stars may have governed the hearts of people, but without much importance to the powers that be.

The film industry called it an industry, but it never enjoyed that status and always asked for it. When the economy was liberalized, the status of the industry was finally granted so that producers could benefit from institutional financing, insurance against damage to production, etc. However, there was no connection between governments and the film fraternity, except when they wanted the actors to draw crowds to the electoral rallies. After the status of sector, some large production houses began to become more professional, to seek institutional financing, to obtain insurance against risks, etc.

Yet, there was no interaction, no good-humored relationship between Delhi and the film industry in Mumbai. This report seems to be developing now. This was evident when the filmmaker had two meetings with Prime Minister Modi, back to back and came back with results rather than mere promises. In fact, it became clear that the prime minister was accessible when many actors and other actors in the film industry began to visit him while he was the chief minister of Gujarat. The stars wanted to know the investment prospects in Gujarat and wind power was an attraction for some other than real estate.

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