Bollywood8217;s woes to get a hearing, finally

MAY 8: At last the voice of the beleaguered film industry would be heard in the corridors of powers that be. In a significant development, t...

MAY 8: At last the voice of the beleaguered film industry would be heard in the corridors of powers that be. In a significant development, the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce amp; Industries FICCI has taken up the cause of Bollywood and organised an interaction between industry representatives and the government.

Prominent personalities from the film industry are expected to make a forceful plea on the industry8217;s accumulated problems to government representatives including the Minister for Information and Broadcasting Sushma Swaraj. Granting of industry status, institutional finance, taxation and protection of copyrights are the four major issues listed for deliberations during the day-long national conference on challenges before Indian cinema8217; scheduled on Sunday.

According to spokesmen for the film industry, the status of industry will bring in more discipline in the working and administration of film business, enable it to obtain insurance cover, rational power tariff and taxprovisions.

Bollywood will be represented by Dilip Kumar, Shatrughan Sinha, Vinod Khanna, Kamal Hasan, Shabana Azmi, D V S Raju, Shyam Benegal, Amit Khanna, K G Dossani, J Om Prakash, Subhash Ghai, Sultan Ahmed, and K D Shorey would speak on the four major issues.

While the government would be represented by Sushma Swaraj, Minister of State for Finance R K Kumar, Chief Minister Manohar Joshi and finance ministers of Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, Revenue Secretary N K Singh, I amp; B Secretary P G Mankad, C M Vasudev, Special Secretary banking, P R Dasgupta, Secretary to Minister of Education under the Ministry of HRD and FICCI president K K Modi. The filmdom is very excited about the proposed meet, said Film Federation of India president S S Jain and hoped that some good results would come out of the delebrations.

Shyam Benegal is expected put up a strong case for the status of industry for Bollywood and abolition of excise and countervailing duty on raw stock. He also wants the Income Taxdepartment to continue with the exemption of tax on the export earnings. Benegal is also expected to argue for self-censorship by the film-makers. quot;Censorship of films has failed in the country for the last 50 years and there is no need to continue it further in view of the mis-interpretation of guidelines by 500 odd censors. Leave the censorship to film makers themselves. They are not school children to be guided how to make a film. They know their responsibilities. There are enough existing laws to avert possible law and order situation if any connected with cinema,quot; he added. K D Shorey who specialises in copyright matters is of the view that the failure in implementing the provisions of the Copyright Act has resulted in loss of crores of rupees revenue not only to the film industry but also to the state and national exchequer.

Sultan Ahmed is seeking abolition of entertainment tax which varies from 30 to 130 per cent.