Hindi
Ambika Soni wants exemption from CVD for unexposed colour films
NEW DELHI: Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni said today that she has raised the issue of exemption from counterveiling duty (CVD) for unexposed colour films with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, a demand the film industry has been raising for well over two decades.
Soni was assuring a high-level delegation from the film industry led by Film Federation of India (FFI) president Jitendra Jain.
Soni also said that she would shortly initiate steps to fight software piracy, which was doing incalculable harm to the industry.
The unexposed negatives are not produced within the country, but the industry still has been paying CVD. Though this was removed in 2002, it was re-imposed in 2004 at the rate of 16 per cent.
The minister also said that in her meeting with Mukherjee, she had stressed the need for parity in taxation amongst all media. She also assured the delegation that she had raised the issue of exemption from service tax to the film industry.
FFI secretary general Supran Sen told indiantelevision.com that the minister had also indicated that relief was expected in fringe benefit tax for the film industry, which had to pay huge FBT in the matter of booking of hotels, travel, food etc. even while traveling for professional work.
He said as the meeting related to budgetary demands, the minister agreed to take up separately the demand seeking relief on remittances abroad under Section 195B of the Income Tax Act as these are for professional work or hiring foreign technicians.
The delegation comprised Sushma Shiromanee, L Suresh, Sakshi Mehra, Ramesh Mehra, Ajay Sarpotdar, S Vidhani and Rajinder Singh among others.
Hindi
Rashmika Mandanna, Shanaya Kapoor and Naila Grrewal climb IMDb’s Indian celebrity rankings
Upcoming films and returning shows are driving fan interest across Bollywood and streaming
MUMBAI: Bollywood’s popularity contest has a new weekly scorecard, and the numbers are telling. IMDb’s Popular Indian Celebrities list for this week places Shanaya Kapoor at number six, buoyed by buzz around her film Tu Yaa Main. Naila Grrewal slots in at seven on the back of the returning comedy series Maamla Legal Hai, while Rashmika Mandanna climbs to eighth, riding mounting anticipation for Cocktail 2.
The list, available exclusively on the IMDb app for Android and iOS, tracks trending Indian entertainers and filmmakers each week, drawing on data from more than 200m monthly visits to the platform worldwide.
Further down the rankings, Raaka is keeping two of its biggest names in the spotlight. Deepika Padukone holds 11th position, with Allu Arjun close behind at 13th, as the film continues to find traction with audiences.
The list offers fans a weekly pulse on who is breaking through, who is holding steady, and who is fading. It is a barometer as unsparing as the box office itself.
