Mumbai, May 24: 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 difference 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.
-Agencies