Thaindian News

May 24, 2010 (Sampurn Wire): It seems, henceforth, bi-lingual films are in some financial trouble. Because Bollywood’s fighters’ associations now demand twice the levy on the fights and fighters participating in a bi-lingual. And if it’s a 3-language film, then a producer has to pay three times more levy than a one-language film.

This, the makers of Rakta Charitra, which is being made simultaneously in Hindi,Tamil, and Telugu, came to know when they were asked to deposit three times more levy than usual.

When asked about the unusual demand on the film’s resources, director Ram Gopal Varma passed on the buck to the producer Sheetal Talwar, who said, “It’s true we were asked to pay up three times the normal levy for the fights in Rakta Charitra. The argument given was that Mani Ratnam’s Raavan, which is in two languages (Tamil and Hindi) had to pay twice the levy. But we argued back that in Raavan all the fights in the two languages were different since the Tamil and Hindi versions of the film star different actors. In Raktra Charitra we have exactly the same cast in Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu and the fights have not been shot twice over. Only the close-ups in the two versions are different.”

After a week-long fight, the fighters’ association has brought down the levy to twice rather than thrice the normal amount.

However, the producers of Rakta Charitra are still not willing to pay up the amount demanded, as this would entail an extra burden of Rs. 50-60 lakhs on their budget.

“We’re fighting it out. Let’s see,” Talwar ends hopefully.

– Subhash K Jha / Sampurn Wire