India’s heritage sold for a song

The proposal to hike the fee has been hanging fire for five years. Cleared by the Department of Culture in 1993, the draft notification was sent to the Law Ministry for vetting. The file was not recovered until now. The ASI is now planningto send the proposal to the Department of Culture again. The notification hopes to increase the fee for documentaries to Rs 10,000 a day and for feature films to Rs 20,000 a day.

It will not be a moment too soon. In the past year alone, ASI protected monuments have been used as backdrops for Shahrukh Khan and Manisha Koirala in Mani Ratnam’s Rs 10-crore Dil Se and Aishwarya Rai and Prashant in Shankar’s multi-crore extravaganza, Jeans. Sure, the ASI tries to be particular. It tries to ensure that there is no misuse of the monument.

For instance, after Dilip Kumar’s Leader was shot at the Taj Mahal and ended up ruining the gardens, the ASI took a decision not to allow film-makers to go beyond the main gate of Agra’s showpiece. But that didn’t stop the ASI from giving permission to Discovery Channel to shoot an “educational” film on the premises which looks at the delicate marble inlay work in detail.

The 1958 Act specifically prevents misuse of the monuments but leaves the interpretation open to ASIofficials. There are still red faces in ASI over the song-and-dance sequences shot by Subhash Ghai in Fatehpur Sikri for Pardes. “The film-makers do not always stick to the script they submit to us,” says a highly placed source in the ASI.

“And the local area staff mandated to monitor the film shoot isn’t always alert.” The latest quandary facing the ASI is Muzaffar Ali’s request that he be allowed to shoot a qawwali at the Diwan-i-Aam at Red Fort. Ali is working on a two-part documentary for the Ministry of External Affairs, called Fragrance of Love. The ASI objection to the request is that it would be historically inaccurate to feature a qawwali at what was the people’s court.