‘Corruption, favouritism in allotting movie subsidies’

Gujarati film producer takes State government’s Information Department to court, alleging it has wrongfully evaluated and given benefits to certain movies duping public exchequer of Rs 4 crore

When the Gujarat government revised its three-year-old policy last year to encourage production of Gujarati films by offering incentives, the film industry rejoiced. However, a Gujarati film producer has filed a petition before Gujarat High Court, claiming corruption and discrimination in providing subsidy to film makers. He has also sought to re-evaluate the Information Department screening committee’s process of marking films for subsidies.

The high court will conduct a hearing on August 28. Manoj Patel, who has produced Gujarati movies ‘Commitment’ and ‘Facebook Dhamal’, moved a petition before HC earlier this month. This was adjourned twice as his lawyer sought time.

Patel has accused the department of corruption in issuing subsidies and causing loss of Rs 4 crore to the public exchequer. He reportedly made the claim based upon the replies he got through RTI petitions.

“There is corruption in giving subsidies to Gujarati movies that are not eligible for it. Funds have been released in violation of government policies. The department has shown discrimination in evaluating films and releasing amount of Rs 4-crore subsidy,” Patel told Mirror.


Patel’s petition claimed that he had filed RTIs with the Information Department and received data that showed that producers of as many as 18 films that were released in 2016, 2017 and 2018 were given subsidy bases on the new policy introduced in 2019. As per the policy, the government announced subsidy of up to Rs 50 lakh to movie makers in an effort to encourage Gujarati film industry.

The department constituted the screening committee to evaluate the quality and uniqueness of movies and decide the amount of subsidy.

“The policy came into effect on March 8, 2019 and its benefit was given to 18 movies which were released three years prior to that, according to the reply to my RTI application. This should not have happened as the movies ought to have been given benefit under the older policy formed in 2016.

Some of these few films are remakes of movies in other languages, making it ineligible for subsidy any way,” Patel added. He also said, “The screening committee ought to have evaluated the movie sitting in the cinema hall, but the committee evaluated movies by getting them in pen drives and watching them in a room or office.”

Patel added, “I made ‘Commitment’ on nexus between the pharmaceutical and medical fraternity. My ‘Facebook Dhamal’ is based on the addiction to social media. These films were not evaluated properly. I made several representations to the government but in vain.”