Film industry reacts to the UP Film policy

It is a welcome step. The decision indicates a modern mindset where the importance of entertainment industry is emphasised. This will have a two-dimensional impact: it will not only provide employment to the indigenous work force involved in filmmaking, but also help in keeping the ethos of UP alive. On the flipside the amount given as incentive is not enough to attract filmmakers to the state. An average film has a budget of 10 crore, so a filmmaker will not weave a story in UP in order to get a crore for it. Only those filmmakers will come whose films are organically based in the state. – Mahesh Bhatt, who plans to shoot in Varanasi Single window for permissions– Onir, plans to shoot Vedaa in UPSafety first It is a positive step, but money can come from anywhere, what is really required is proper infrastructure so that it is conducive to shoot in UP. There should also be provision for single window system, so that filmmakers are not hassled for permissions. The government should also ensure that adequate arrangements for crowd control are made. Recently, there was a single day shoot of my film Besharam in Greater Noida. The situation got so out of control that we had to cancel the shoot after a person from the crowd pointed a gun at our security personnel. So what is really required is to remove these kind of problems first.– Abhinav Kashyap, whose Encourage good cinemacrorescroresBandhuFilmmakers are already coming to the state to shoot films, not because it’s UP or Lucknow, but because it’s a new location and the labour here is cheap. Since big banners are already there, an institute or training centre should be set up for skill development. We have institutes to train actors and writers, but none to train technicians like camera assistants, light men etc. Such skill-based centres should also be established in the state. – Atul Tiwari, Bollywood writer from BandhuThis step will only facilitate filmmakers with small budgets or regional filmmakers. In the past, we’ve seen that where government money is involved, the quality of films is compromised as the intention is more on drawing money rather than an artistic attempt.– Dr Chandraprakash Dwivedi, Mohalla AssiVaranasiIt is indeed a positive step and it will attract a lot of filmmakers to UP. But I would like to caution that the creative content should be of a high quality. Subjects should project the life and culture of the state in such a way that it promotes interest and tourism. Such films should be given a good release in the state and accorded exemption of entertainment tax. – Muzaffar Ali, filmmaker Lucknow