The Hindu : Kerala News : Film industry headed for another crisis

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 09, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

Film industry headed for another crisis

By N.J. Nair

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, JUNE 8. The Malayalam film industry is moving towards yet another crisis with the entire industry deciding to stop exhibition and production of films from June 25. Various arms of the industry have jointly taken the decision in protest against the failure of the Government to concede its charter of demands including cut in power tariff and restructuring of entertainment tax rates.

The Kerala Film Exhibitors Federation chairman, S. Chandran, told The Hindu here today that the successive Governments had not evinced any interest in redressing the grievances of the industry and hence all organisations under the Kerala Film Chamber of Commerce representing the producers, exhibitors, distributors and studio owners had decided to go on strike. The Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes (AMMA) and Malayalam Cinema Technicians Association (MACTA) too have pledged support to the agitation, he said.

The number of cinema houses in the State had dwindled from 1,100 to 750 and more others were facing closure threat due to financial crisis. When the Minister for Local-Self Government, Cherkalam Abdulla, gave entertainment tax exemption to the water theme parks in the State, the Government was sitting on the requests to save the film industry from extinction, Mr. Chandran said.

The trade bodies had urged the LDF Government to revise the power tariff and restructure the entertainment tax. The Government then formed a four-member panel of secretaries headed by the then Culture Secretary, T. Balakrishnan, to look into the demands. The Government could not consider the committee report since elections were announced.

Later, a delegation took up the issue with the UDF Government in May 2001 and a four-member Cabinet sub-committee consisting of the Cultural Affairs Minister, G. Karthikeyan, the Information Minister, M.M. Hassan, Mr. Cherkalam Abdulla and the Finance Minister, K. Sankaranarayanan, was formed to consider the demands. The committee met only once during the past three years and never took up the main issues, Mr. Chandran said.

When Adoor Gopalakrishnan was heading the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy, he had also submitted a comprehensive action plan to rescue the industry from the red on June 10, 2002.

The academy's action plan had sought among other things a tax holiday for new Malayalam releases, tax exemption for award films, cut in entertainment tax and lowering power tariff for cinema houses. Later, the Kerala State Film Development Corporation too had demanded urgent Government attention on tariff revision and tax restructuring, but to no avail. The chamber had submitted an 11-point charter of demands to the Government on June 2. The demands included special power tariff for theatres, fix the entertainment tax at 20 per cent and stringent action to check video piracy. Repeated requests had fallen on deaf ears and now the industry was forced to take strong steps for survival, he said.

All southern States were giving due importance and encouragement to the industry that was one of the major sources of revenue for the exchequer. When the Kerala State Electricity Board is levying Rs. 5.80 per unit from the exhibitors, it is Rs. 3 in Tamil Nadu. The Karnataka Government is not levying entertainment tax for Kannada films and Andhra Pradesh is charging 9 per cent for Telugu films. Unless the Government steps in to save the situation, the industry employing lakhs of people would grind to a halt soon, Mr. Chandran said.

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