By Renuka Dhakal

Kathmandu, May 31: In his budget speech on Thursday, Finance Minister Dr Yuba Raj Khatiwada pledged to encourage the production of native Nepali films.
The films which promote and preserve nationality, national unity, language and culture will benefit from the new budget.
Presenting the budget in the joint session of the Federal Parliament on Thursday, Finance Minister Dr Khatiwada said the government would give priority to filming the cinema. The government has allocated budget to build film cities in all seven states.
This year, the budget has also been allocated for the construction of a building of the Film Artists Association.
Similarly, necessary budget has been set aside to the Film Development Board for safe storage of the Nepali films.
Akash Adhikari, President of the Film Producer Association, said that The Film Producers Association had submitted a 17-point demand to the government covering all issues related to the country’s film industry. “However, only three points have been addressed in the new budget,” said Adhikari.
Talking to The Rising Nepal, Adhikari said that the government had tried to make long-lasting moves in the budget, but had not addressed anything for immediate stimulation of the film industry.
However, he said that the budget had to cover every aspect of the entire nation, and they would again talk about the issues of the film industry with the government through the Film Development Board.
“The film industry has lagged behind by two years due to COVID-19 pandemic, and if the government does not help, people dependent on the film industry will become jobless,” said Adhikari.
However, producer, actor, and comedian Dipak Raj Giri raised question on the plan of promoting native films in budget. He has written on his Facebook wall, “It is good to hear that budget has been allocated for the production of native films. However, what mechanism will be there to select the native movies? Probably, the same old style.”
Giri further questioned, “What kind of movie is original/native? The movie that has been completely rejected by the audience time and again and a movie in which audience falls asleep in half an hour after watching it in the hall!”
He further stressed that Nepali film industry is dominated by foreign films because of the plan of only promoting native films.
And because of that “we are forced to accept the dominance of Hollywood and Bollywood films in Nepal”, said Giri.
Giri stressed that government should not only promote the native films but also popular native productions.
He also urged the government to stop favouritism in the film industry to encourage overall Nepali film development.
He is dissatisfied that the budget had not addressed the demand for different ticket prices for foreign and Nepali films as well. Likewise, actor and director Ashok Sharma also wrote on his social media account that the movie theatres were in trouble due to COVID-19 and the budget failed to address the problem.
“It is important to understand that the film industry is a combination of production, performance, distribution, art and technology and if the movie halls run well, movies will generate more income which ultimately benefits the artistes,” said Sharma.
Sharma was not only dissatisfied with budget but also angry with the Nepali film industrialists for promoting foreign films and giving more importance to foreign movies.
Some producers, artistes and technicians who present themselves as extremist nationalists but are proud to invest in foreign movies for acting or doing technical work and bring foreign celebs as chief guests in the programme by ignoring our local actors, said Sharma. However, the budget has also offered some facilities for cinema halls as well. The movie house affected by the coronavirus has been given the exemption on value added tax details and tax filing period is made quarterly.
Likewise, electricity charges have also been reduced by 50 per cent in the cinema halls. The Finance Minister had announced a waiver on license and equipment renewal fees to address the impact on the film sector.
Similarly, loan facility for working capital and bank guarantee for lockdown have been arranged in the budget.