TELUGU CINEMASS

Jun 4, 2007

TAX ON FILMS DUBBED INTO TELUGU REDUCED


Hit films dubbed into Telugu have always run house full in theatres in Andhra Pradesh. Now the Supreme Court has further reduced the taxes on dubbing rights, which has made distributors happy.

The apex court has said that the entertainment tax on films dubbed into Telugu should be reduced from 20 per cent to 15 per cent.

After this a Hindi film distributor went to court against discriminatory taxes in Andhra Pradesh.

"Films particularly from English run very well. Like 'Spiderman', 'Ghost Rider', 'Pirates' etc. Even Shankar's 'Aparichutudu' and Rajini's 'Chandramukhi' ran for more than 100 days," said Gautam Reddy, Distributor.

For Telugu films, higher taxes on films made in other languages had so far served as a buffer. There was even a proposal to ban dubbed films two months ago because it was felt that dubbed films curb the growth of small budget Telugu movies.

"There will be a employment problem. Atleast 10,000 people are directly dependent and lakhs of people are indirectly dependent on the film industry. There are already starving because of lack of jobs," said T Prasad, Secretary, AP Film Chambers.

Of the 198 movies that released in Telugu last year, 90 were dubbed from other languages. And only five were dubbed from Telugu to other languages.

The notion has always been that Tamil films are more creative than Telugu. But producers here argue that Tamil Nadu charges 50 per cent tax for a Telugu film to be dubbed which explains why more films are imported than exported in Telugu.

The fight against dubbed movies it appears will not be over soon, with the council planning to appeal again.

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