Mumbai: Congress leader Sanjay Dutt appealed Friday to the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government to declare Hindi film Chhapaak, based on the real life story of an acid attack survivor, tax-free in the state.
The Deepika Padukone-starrer film, directed by Meghna Gulzar, hit the theatres Friday.
Dutt, an AICC secretary, said the film inspires and conveys a positive message to change the society’s outlook against such survivors and highlights their agony, struggle and triumph against all odds.
Given the film’s positive message and content, the MVA government should provide it tax-free status in the state, the leader said.
The Congress governments in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh on declared the film tax-free Thursday.
If a movie is declared tax-free it means the state has waived the entertainment levy imposed on it, thereby bring down the ticket rates and encouraging more people to watch it.
Deepika visited Tuesday the JNU campus in Delhi to express solidarity with students who were attacked by armed assailants Sunday night, but did not address the gathering.
In another development BJP leader Gopal Bhargava has criticised the MP government’s decision to declare Chhapaak tax-free. He remarked that even if the film was ‘porn’ the Congress administration would have given it the same relief.
MP Chief Minister Kamal Nath took to Twitter to make the announcement that Chhapaak will be tax-free. He said the movie gives a ‘positive message to the society about acid attack survivors’.
However, the move has not gone down well with the opposition BJP. “The film was not even released and still it was made tax-free. Be it stunt or action or anything…if porn, they could have done it even then,” Bhargava said in Harda town of MP.
The Leader of Opposition in the MP Assembly was asked about the Congress government’s decision to make the Padukone-starrer film tax-free.
Reacting strongly to Bhargavas comments, MP Congress media department chairperson Shobha Oza termed them as ‘derogatory’ towards women.
Agencies