Subhash Ghai moves HC to keep film school going

MUMBAI: Film-maker Subhash Ghai has pointed to a slew of errors in a 2012 Bombay high court judgment that set aside a joint venture agreement based on which he had set up Whistling Woods, an international film school.
He has moved the court afresh for permission to continue the school at Film City in Goregaon till a review petition he has filed is decided.
With the Modi government declaring two state-run film schools to be of national importance in its Budget, Ghai, who will be seeking a hearing in the high court on Wednesday, wishes that the state government ensures that its own initiative taken 14 years ago to enable the film school as a public-private partnership continues in public interest.Mukta Arts, Ghai’s film production company, filed amendments to its 2012 review plea and contended that the high court overlooked the fact that there were two resolutions of 2000 passed by the Maharashtra Film, Stage & Cultural Development Corporation which say that the project to hand over land for the film school had been approved by the board and only consequential modalities were to be worked out.
The high court had held that the resolutions “do not indicate that a conscious decision was taken either to allot 20 acres of land to Mukta Arts Ltd, or to the joint venture between Mukta Arts Ltd and the Corporation or to permit use of such land by Mukta Arts”.
The HC findings are incorrect and unfounded, his plea said. The high court had held that the state had “on oath” said the transaction was “mired in illegality”.
Affidavits filed by the state do not contain any statement that the transaction or JV was illegal, nor had the state accepted them to be illegal, the amendments to the review plea now say.