Indian cinema, be it Bollywood or regional films, may enjoy a widespread fan-following in the country, but the mandarins of the Planning Commission appear more concerned about Indian cinema pandering to the tastes of foreign audiences and critics. This despite the fact that several movies have raked in over a hundred crores in box office collections in the recent past.
A Planning Commission working group, headed by the I&B secretary, has lamented the fact that Indian film participation in reputed foreign film festivals has been coming down over the years. Expressing concern over the falling quality of Indian films, it has stated that there is an urgent need for “trained professionals and story tellers” in the Indian film industry.
The adverse comments from the panel have come despite the fact that the government has not granted industry status to film production, which has been a long-pending demand. The government has also been unable to offer incentives and reduction of entertainment tax, and instead is believed to have proposed a 10.3 per cent service tax on the film industry. In its report submitted to the Planning Commission recently, the committee has also expressed concern on the low number of movie halls in the country (approximately 11,000 theatres for a population of over 1.2 billion) with almost no provision for poor viewers in metropolitan cities.
“In the last few decades there has been a marked shortfall in the area of content development and trained story telling which has led to this particular situation,” it added. Giving an example, the committee has pointed out that during the 1980s, Indian film participation in foreign films was noted. However, during the past few years this participation has almost vanished. “This problem needs to be resolved soon,” it added. “Indian cinema is too individualistic and the role of producers, directors, editors and writers is not well defined. Whereas in every leading film producing country these roles are very well defined,” the report stated.
In an effort to remedy the problems plaguing Indian cinema several suggestions have also been made by the committee.