"Budget 2015", A flop @ box office for Bollywood
As the details of the Indian governments new budget come to light, The Indian Film industry was eagerly keeping their eye on the details.
You may wonder why Bollywood would be so concerned with matters related to the central government? Well there’s good reason.
Filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt tells us,
“Entertainment taxes are killing us. There should be incentives given to us to attract film-makers from abroad to partner with us. We can have collaborations here. We can create an environment that is economically friendly for entertainment industries across the world to come here for film shoots. India has the largest skilled workforce, and some simple measures taken in the right direction can put us on the world map”
The entire Indian Film Industry including Actors, Producers, Film Makers and even Multiplex owners are hoping that the new budget takes into consideration factors which include taxes and incentives which will both increase the financial viability and attract international investment to the industry which will in turn contribute to the Nations overall economy.
Actor & Producer Shah Rukh Khan told reporters during a recent press conference that he was hopeful that this years budget would have inclusions for the film industry … … “attracting people into business is very important part of budget”.
While asking filmmaker Anurag Kashyap for his input he replied,
“We pay entertainment tax, VAT (Value-Added Tax), service tax, and some more taxes over and above these. Despite so many taxes, they don’t provide security for our movies. They also censor our films and use us as soft targets. The benefit of the industry has been the last priority for the government,”
Overall “Bollywood” wasn’t too impressed with the Unions new budget but are still looking ahead to a bright and shinning future. As with any topic, the world of Social Media was filled with feedback.
“Did I miss out anything on Entertainment industry or is there nothing there at all?,” Sanjay Suri tweets.
“There never is. Sadly, Bollywood is still an “industry” in name only.”, tweets Vishal Dadlani.
Actress Aditi Rao Hydari tweets out to her fans “grrrrrrrr, can the country pl stand up and be nice to us for a change”, while Super Star actor SRK says not to ask him about the budget.
Well its clear that Bollywood’s hopes were crushed by not getting “Value Added Services” from the new tax codes, they will continue to contribute to the “VAT” like the rest of us and keep churning out the hits that keep us returning to the Big Screen.
