By A Staff Reporter, Kathmandu, Jun. 1: At a time when a few filmmakers have appreciated the new budget for including the suggestions of the film sector, filmmaker cum actor Ashok Sharma has said that the programmes included in the budget were not adequate to address the problems facing by the film sector.

Twenty-two movie halls have been closed since the government imposed lockdown in March last year to contain COVID-19, he said. According to Sharma, who is also the general secretary of the Film Association, 30 to 40 more cinema halls are in the verge of closure while millions of rupees invested in films are at high risk.

He said, “The future of the film sector is bleak if the government does not take our problems seriously and addresses them with special programmes, it is certain that this sector will never recover.”

Disappointed by growing COVID-19 cases and lingering lockdown, Sharma said that if the government did not pay attention to the present condition of the film sector, it would collapse. By providing data of the films packed for two years, he informed through his Facebook on Monday that about 40 films were waiting for their release for two years.

“From shooting to its release, the average cost of a film is Rs. 20 million, this means about Rs. 1 billion invested in the 40 films is now at risk,” he said.

According to him, the budget for a film in Nepal ranges from Rs. 10.5 million to Rs. 50 million. Similarly, many artists, technicians, writers, musicians, singers, and others have remained unemployed since filmmaking activities came to a standstill owing to fear of COVID-19 and lockdown, he said.

He further said that millions of rupees of the distributors, who had invested in advance in the movies prepared before COVID-19, could never be recovered now. Stating that the budget did not address the problems of the film industry adequately, he said that there was still time to change the budget and demanded that an economic package should be included in the budget for the revival of the overall film sector.

He urged the government that a 5 to 10-year policy plan be included in the budget after holding discussions with the film experts and leaders