Protectionist policy has only hurt Kannada films

BENGALURU: The story of the Kannada film industry is one of a pampered child languishing because of protectionist parents. The regional language industry, which was once vibrant thanks to its distinct quality, is now a pale shadow of itself, crying out for life support.
Industry watchers have time and again decried populist measures taken by successive governments, ostensibly to conserve Kannada heritage but which end up rendering disservice to the language film industry.While Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam films produced in neighbouring states have grown stronger over the years, the Kannada film industry has been on a steady downward spiral, leaving stakeholders divided on how it should be shored up.
The issue is back in focus after actor-turned politician Tara Anuradha called attention to the ailing industry in a speech in the legislative council last week, urging the government to ponder and draw up a revised Kannada film policy.
“It is time we looked at a revamped policy to suit the needs of the Kannada film industry in the changed context of technology and market dynamics,” Tara said. “If we fail to reinvent ourselves now, it will be too late and no one will be able save the local film industry from dying a natural death.”
The underlying prognosis is that Kannada films have lost their competitive edge because of diminishing quality of their content and making, while the shrinking market is not being helpful. Domain experts say the root cause of the ailment are freebies and protectionist policies doled out by successive governments over the years.
“Initially, the cause was noble as the government sincerely wanted the Kannada film industry to grow strong and establish its base in Karnataka,” said S V Rajendra Singh Babu, a veteran film-maker and former chairman of the Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy. “But it turned out to be politically lucrative as parties began playing up pro-Kannada sentiment and whipping up emotions.”
The Congress government, led by S Nijalingappa in 1966, was perhaps the first to touch on the issue when it announced a subsidy scheme to promote the film industry. Under the scheme, a film producer was paid get an incentive of Rs 50,000 for his film. The subsidy increased over the years to touch Rs 10 lakh per film. At present, the government spends over Rs 15 crore to subsidise Kannada films and 125 films are entitled to subsidies of between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 25 lakh under different categories.
“The present subsidy scheme is not helping Kannada films in terms of market competition,” Devu Pathar, member of Kannada film subsidy committee, said, adding that the committee has sent a proposal urging that the contours of the subsidy scheme be changed. “What we have suggested is that the money be utilised to train the film-makers on modern techniques of film-making and market promotion.”
When non-Kannada films are being made with huge budgets — films often breach the Rs 100 crore mark — the amount of subsidy being doled out by the government is ridiculously meagre. Domain experts say it is decreasing the quality of Kannada films as many producers restrict their budgets to the subsidy amount. “We watch over 150 films a year and I am sad to say that only a handful is up to market standard,” said Bharathi Hegde, advisory panel member of Central Board of Film Certification.
In 1957, much before the Nijalingappa government's subsidy scheme, the Kannada film industry introduced a self-imposed ban on dubbing other language films to Kannada. The aim was to protect the industry from uneven competition from their counterparts from stronger film industries including Hindi, Telugu and Tamil.
People, who are against the ban on dubbed films, argue that the anti-dubbing policy has not helped the Kannada film market grow.
“The ban on dubbing only favours other language films,” said Arun Javagal, secretary of Kannada Grahakara Okkoota, which moved the Competition Commission of India against the ban on the dubbed films in 2012 and obtained a favourable judgment. “After dubbed films were banned, the market for non-Kannada films increased, while it has remarkably shrunk for Kannada films.”
In more protectionist moves, the Nijalingappa government granted a 50% tax rebate on tickets of Kannada films, and the Ramakrishna Hegde government in 1986 went a step ahead, completely exempting films made in Kannada and its sublanguages such as Tulu and Konkani from entertainment tax. A rider was that the films should be entirely made within the state.
The intent behind the move was to nudge film producers, who based their film making activities in Chennai, to shift to Karnataka. The effect, however, was that it narrowed the scope for producers. They were forced to limit their resources within Karnataka at a time when infrastructure and availability of technology was inadequate.
“Kannada producers cannot afford to have luxurious sets which films like Bahubali were shot at,” said Sa Ra Govindu, former president of Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce. “The argument is that they would be able to utilise used sets at cheaper prices if they are allowed to shoot outside Karnataka.”
The Kannada film fraternity is now arguing that Kannada films be made outside the state as the taxfree benefit no longer exists in the GST regime.
SHYING AWAY FROM COMPETITION
While the government’s protectionist policy might have helped a handful of personalities, it hit the Kannada film industry to a large extent. Both the government and film fraternity had to face multiple defeats as the protectionist policies were challenged in different courts. In 2003, the government took the extreme step of forcing all non-Kannada films to release only seven weeks after their commercial release outside Karnataka. The move was meant to reduce the box office appeal of non-Kannada films at movie theatres in Karnataka and was based on the assumption that the audience would flock to Kannada movies instead. However, piracy was rampant in those days.
The Supreme Court struck down the government’s order and directed police to provide protection to theatres screening non-Kannada films. “The Karnataka government is responsible for not allowing the Kannada film industry to realise its full potential,” said K V Dhananjay, a senior advocate, who represented theatre owners, distributors and producers in the Supreme Court in the case against the government’s moratorium on the release on non-Kannada films. “It has advocated policies which have had the effect of distorting the market for films — by favouring Kannada films at the ticket counter while imposing higher rates of entertainment taxes on non-Kannada films.”
In 2010, distributors of the Hindi film Kites moved the Competition Commission of India (CCI) against the self-imposed law implemented by the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce, restricting the number of screens for non-Kannada films in Karnataka to 24. The commission ruled in favour of the petitioners. The Kannada Grahakara Okkoota in 2012 moved the Supreme Court against the ban on dubbed films and the apex court ruled that the ban is illegal.
VANISHING THEATRES
With the culture of watching movies at malls thriving, more and more single-screen theatres are making way for multiplexes. The victim of the new culture is the Kannada film industry as local language films were entirely dependent on single-screen theatres, more so on touring talkies which provide major market share in rural areas. As multiplexes entered the market, the number of single-screen theatres, such as Kapali (in pic) reduced from 1200 to 500, of which Kannada films were shown in only 200. Touring talkies, meanwhile, have completely vanished. The government in order to encourage single-screen theatres brought in the Janata Theatre scheme that aims to provide incentives to theatre owners and grant a subsidy of Rs 50 lakh. But the scheme is yet to take off.
PENDING PROMISES
The state government had promised to reimburse the state component of GST levied on Kannada movie tickets as the tax-free benefit ceased to exist in the GST regime. The proposal has been pending with the finance department since July 2017. Last year the government proposed to cap prices of movie tickets of other languages at Rs
200. The proposal has been entangled in legal issues and the case is pending in the high court. The industry is demanding that the government rein in multiplexes charging exorbitant ticket prices and their selective approach in allotting screens for Kannada films. They are also demanding that the digital distribution chains such as UFO and CUBE be regulated through legislation.
The government is yet to respond.
Former CM, Siddaramaiah had promised a film city in Mysuru and CM, HD Kumaraswamy had hinted that it would shifted to Ramanagara. But, there was no mention of it in his budget speech and the film fraternity is a confused lot.