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Monday, June 29, 1998

Star panel to advise Swaraj

KAVEREE BAMZAI  
NEW DELHI, JUNE 28: Minister for Information and Broadcasting Sushma Swaraj is constituting a high-powered coordination committee to advise her on the modalities of granting industry status to the film world.

The committee, which is expected to comprise of Dadasaheb Phalke winner Dilip Kumar, Telugu film producer D Rama Naidu, bilingual director Mani Ratnam, Malayalam powerhouse Adoor Gopalakrishnan, actress and Rajya Sabha member Shabana Azmi, actor and Rajya Sabha member Shatrughan Sinha, popular director Yash Chopra and actress-turned-director Aparna Sen, will tackle the tricky task of financing in the new environment.

The committee will have its first meeting with Swaraj on July 17. With the industry undergoing a recession, the long-awaited recognition is being perceived as both a boon and a problem. A boon because of the possibility of greater funding but a problem because of a more stringent excise regime.

Yash Chopra said the ball was now in the film industry's court. ``The Government has doneits job. Now the industry has to get scripts, artist schedules, set details and laboratory guarantees in order.'' Shatrughan Sinha said the panel would have to work out the criteria for eligible producers, so as to ensure that middle and small-scale producers were not edged out. Under the new format, while the banking committees will examine the scripts, the financial institutions will provide the loans.

On Thursday, talking to the media, Swaraj announced that the Ministry was also forming a Film Export Forum and a Film Development Council. The latter would deal with all the problems related to the industry and would have its first meeting in August with her as the chairperson. She added that she had asked for films to be placed in the concurrent list of the Constitution and had written to all chief ministers on this. She would be meeting all state information ministers in this regard in August. High on the agenda will be a discussion on entertainment tax.

Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.


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