New Delhi, Jan 11, 2020-
Anurag Kashyap-produced ‘Saand Ki Aankh’ and his co-produced ‘Mukkebaaz’ which asked for government sops have stirred a political row. The BJP has said that his anti-CAA diatribe has less to do with the new citizenship law and more with the non-clearance of his application for government subsidy for the movies.
BJP’s IT Cell Chief Amit Malviya has tweeted: “Why are chaps like Anurag Kashyap so upset with Modi and BJP? In 2016, Akhilesh Yadav bankrolled his film ‘Masaan’ to the extent of 2 crore rupees. But similar requests for ‘Mukkabaaz’ and ‘Sand ki Ankh’ have not been approved by the Yogi government. It is not about #CAA…?”
Malviya tweeted documents to back up his claims. But, there has been existing policy in Uttar Pradesh on films’ promotion which needed to be made in Hindi and UP’s regional languages such as Bhojpuri. The idea was to encourage filmmakers to make movies in Uttar Pradesh. When Yogi Adityanath took over, he tweaked the policy to allow movies made in English or other Indian languages.
During the Samajwadi Party’s tenure, 21 movies including ‘Masaan’ got government subsidies worth Rs 9.41 crore. ‘Masaan’ itself had received Rs 2 crore.
But, a similar application for government sops for Kashyap’s two other movies, during Yogi Adityanath’s tenure have not been sanctioned so far, due to technicalities involved. BJP leader Malviya indicated that Kashyap’s aggression against the ruling party over CAA is linked with it. (Agency)
