A boost to the Gujarati film industry
In the coming years, the Gujarati Film Industry will experience a major boost. The state government is working on a new policy under which each Gujarati film will be given financial assistance up to Rs 50 lakh. Not only this. The policy will be make it compulsory for multiplexes to screen at least one Gujarati film every day during prime time between 3 pm and 10 pm. For this, multiplexes will be given an incentive of Rs 2 per ticket. Further, the Gujarati TV channels will be given Rs 10,000 per episode to encourage them to telecast cultural and enter tainment programmes in the local language.
The policy has been named as the `Gujarat film: Quality-based direct and indirect assistance policy-2015′ and it says that experts were consulted on ways to improve quality of Gujarati movies. The state government plans to give Rs 5 crore as prize money to a Gujarati film that wins an international award -an Oscar or a prize at Cannes films festival. Rs 1 crore will be given to Gollywood films which win national awards. Most importantly , all Gujarati movies will get tax exemption, claimed sources. However, no assistance of any kind will be given to films with CBFC `A’ certification.
The critically acclaimed Gujarati film Better Half, director Ashish Kakkad said “If the state government is really planning such a policy , it will go a long way towards improving the quality Gujarati movies.”