Enthused by some Gujarati films setting the box office on ‘fire’ in the recent past, the state government on Tuesday announced a new “quality-driven” Gujarati film promotion policy envisaging increased subsidies and incentives in different categories in an effort to revive the western state’s film industry, popularly known as “Dhollywood”.

After many years in a lull, two Gujarati films — Kevi Reete Jayeesh (How to go?) and Chhello Diwas (The Last Day) — were declared hits in recent months, thus reviving the hopes of the state’s actors and producers. Another film on Ahmedabad’s background, Kai Po Che , in Hindi, based on best-selling author Chetan Bhagat’s novel, got rave reviews and box-office collections a couple of years ago.

The new policy has been drafted on the basis of a KPMG report submitted to the State government. Although it is quite like the Maharashtra policy, Gujarat will assist producers with 75 per cent of the production cost instead of 50 per cent in the neighbouring state.

The new film policy, announced by Cabinet Minister and Government spokesman Nitin Patel here, will divide Gujarati films into four categories and incentives will be given accordingly. A fixed amount of Rs 5 lakh that has been given as subsidy to Gujarati films since 1999 irrespective of their category, quality or success, will now be increased to Rs 50 lakh in the A-category, Rs 25 lakh for the B-category, Rs 10 lakh for the C-category and Rs 5 lakh for category D. This assistance will be either 75 per cent of the production cost or a grade-wise amount fixed by the government, whichever is lower.

Categorisation of films will be decided by a Film Screening Committee of 10 members who will give average points, from a total of 80 points allocated to 13 departments of a film. Twenty points will be given from the number of tickets sold by multiplexes and theatres in Gujarat and another 20 points in line with the report by the film distributor.

Patel said films related to children and women’s empowerment will get an additional 25 per cent financial assistance. Also, a financial assistance of Rs 2 crore to Rs 5 crore will be given to those Gujarati films that win specific international awards, and Rs 1 crore to Gujarati films winning the regional films’ ‘Rajat Kamal’ national award of the Centre. The existing 100 per cent tax waiver to Gujarati films will continue.

Patel said the new policy, aimed at ushering in a new era of Gujarati cinema, was formulated under the guidance of personalities from the entertainment world, including actors Manoj Joshi, Naresh Kanodia, Swapna Waghmare Joshi and Apara Mehta, besides director Abhishek Jain, musician Gaurang Vyas, and script writer Mihir Bhuta.

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