MUMBAI, APRIL 6: Minister for Transport and Publicity Gajanan Kirtikar today clarified his statement in Assembly that the film on Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar had been delayed due to non-availability of dates from its principal star Mammooty was based on a statement given to him by the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) in writing.Stating that the cost of the film had gone up to Rs 8.95 crore, he added that the state government had paid its contribution of Rs 1.75 crore to the film well on time. ``Now we are eagerly awaiting its release,'' he pointed out.The Minister observed that the original budget of the film was Rs 6 crore, out of which Rs 5 crore was to be paid by the Central government. The Maharashtra government was asked to contribute Rs 1 crore, since Dr Ambedkar hailed from this state. ``We paid Rs 1 crore by August 1997. But NFDC, which was entrusted the Ambedkar project, informed the government the project had been delayed by eight months due to non-availability of dates of Mammooty. Due to this and the strike of cine workers, the budget had increased by Rs 2.22 crore, and the Maharashtra government was asked to allocate an additional Rs 75 lakh as the Central government had agreed to sanction an additional sum of Rs 1 crore to the increased budget. The remaining sum of Rs 47 lakh was paid by NFDC,'' he said.Then came another increase in cost of production, but NFDC paid Rs 17 lakh to the increased budget. So out of the total cost of production of Rs 8.39 crore, the Central government has paid Rs 6 crore, the state government Rs 1.75 crore and the NFDC Rs 64 lakh. In addition, the Central government has allocated Rs 60 lakh for dubbing the film in five languages, including Marathi, Gujarati, Oriya, Bengali and Hindi, Kirtikar added. This takes the cost of the film to Rs 8.95 crore.Meanwhile, Asha Parekh, chairperson of the Central Board of Film Certification, said the film had already been certified by the end of December 1998, but the certificate had not yet been collected.
