Hindi
Exemption of service tax to be limited to films exhibited in cinema halls
NEW DELHI: The Government has decided to limit the benefit of exemption of service tax to films exhibited in cinema halls.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram today said in his Budget speech for 2013-14 that he had accepted a request of the film industry in this connection.
He pointed out that at the request of the film industry last year, full exemption of service tax was granted on copyright on cinematography.
The Film Federation of India had in its memorandum to the Finance Ministry said that cinema theatres and digital distribution should not be subjected to service tax for Business Support Services.
However, film industry sources said that they had expected more concessions in view of the fact that this year marks the centenary year of Indian cinema.
Among other things, the Federation had appealed to the Government that entertainment tax imposed by states and local bodies should be subsumed in the proposed Goods and Services Tax (GST).
The FFI said that the service tax on performing artistes should also be done away with. It was also demanded that the condition on filmmakers to fill a form under Section 52A of the Income Tax Act for all payments above Rs 50,000 should be confined to only cash payments.
The Federation said the sale, distribution or exhibition of cinematographic films, not regarded as royalty under 9(1)(vi) of the Income Tax Act 1961, is nullified as it is not available under the Direct Tax Code 2010. As it is not regarded as royalty, it does not attract the 10 per cent with-holding tax under Section 194J of the Act. It had, therefore, said an amendment should be made to exclude this from the Code.
Another demand was that exemption to digital conversion – and supply to cinemas – may be put in the Mega Exemption List.
Film industry welcomes exemption move
Film industry organisations today welcomed the benefit of exemption of service tax to films exhibited in cinema halls but felt that the Government had not taken note of the problems being faced by the film industry at a time when it was marking a centenary of Indian cinema.
Film and Television Producers Guild of India president Mukesh Bhatt in a telephonic interview regretted that Chidambaram had not considered digital distribution of films for exemption. He said the government should realise that digital distribution is helping curb piracy of films and is, thus, helping the government earn in entertainment tax and other taxes.
Exemption should have been given to all sectors relating to film exhibition and distribution, he told indiantelevision.com.
Film Federation of India President Bijay Khemka told indiantelevision.com that while the industry welcomed the exemption of service tax to films exhibited in cinema halls, he wondered why the Minister had said the tax exemption would be ‘limited’ to this sector only. He said the Federation had in its memorandum to the Finance Ministry said that cinema theatres and digital distribution should not be subjected to service tax for Business Support Services.
However, both Khemka and Bhatt felt that they would be able to say more after seeing the Finance Bill.
Meanwhile reacting to the partial relief to the film sector, Ernst and Young Tax Partner Rakesh Jariwala said: ‘Partial relief for the film sector as the non-theatrical revenues of a movie are now brought back in the tax net. Producers and distributors will be able to recover a portion of their input credits with this change, thus mitigating a portion of the adverse impact created by the complete exemption granted last year.’
He said for non-film business, impact of removal of exemption to copyright transactions will have to be measured in terms of eligibility of the service receiver to take credits.
He said however that the question of double taxation of transactions in intangible rights (between service tax and Value added tax) remains unanswered.
Hindi
Jio Studios unveils AI-powered Krishna teaser at NAB Show 2026
Global first look of Krishna uses Galleri5 AI pipeline on Azure, Historyverse slate as Jio’s Dhurandhar crosses Rs 3,000cr worldwide.
MUMBAI: Krishna has just dropped a divine teaser and this time the gods are powered by silicon, not just scripture. Jio Studios and Collective Studios’ Historyverse stole the spotlight at the NAB Show 2026 in Las Vegas with the world’s first teaser for their upcoming theatrical feature Krishna, directed by Manu Anand. The big reveal happened during Microsoft’s keynote “Powering Intelligent Media, From AI Experimentation to Real-World Impact,” where the film’s AI-native production pipeline took centre stage alongside Collective Artists Network’s in-house platform, Galleri5.
At the heart of this mythological spectacle lies a fresh cinematic workflow built by Galleri5 on Microsoft Azure’s advanced AI and cloud infrastructure. Forget bolting AI onto traditional VFX or animation, this is an end-to-end, production-grade system woven into every layer: world-building, character creation, shot design and final output. Yet the storytelling remains firmly director-led, emphasising emotional depth, stillness, music and performance rather than pure spectacle. The result? Large-format theatrical cinema rooted in Indian history and culture, but conceived in ways that were simply not possible before.
Collective Artists Network runs Galleri5 natively on Azure, leveraging Microsoft Foundry and cutting-edge AI tools to handle film, episodic and advertising workflows in a secure enterprise environment. Microsoft highlighted Collective as a “Frontier” organisation successfully moving AI from pilot projects to real production-scale deployment in cinema. The technology is also on display at Microsoft’s NAB booth in the West Hall (Booth W1731).
Jio Studios (Media & Content Business, Reliance Industries), president Jyoti Deshpande said the project advances the studio’s mission to take Indian stories global with scale, ambition and authenticity, “With Krishna, we are embracing cutting-edge AI-led filmmaking while democratising these tools to make them more accessible, intuitive and cost-effective for storytellers everywhere.”
Collective Artists Network founder & group CEO Vijay Subramaniam added, “We’re using technology developed in India to carry our culture and history to audiences worldwide at a scale never seen before.”
Microsoft, vice president for telco media & entertainment, gaming Silvia Candiani noted that the media industry has reached an inflection point, “AI is no longer about experimentation but delivering real impact at production scale… By building AI-native creative systems on Microsoft Azure, Collective exemplifies how storytellers can unlock new formats, move faster and realise a true return on intelligence while keeping human creativity at the centre.”
Krishna forms part of Historyverse, Collective Studios’ ambitious slate of history and culture-driven IPs. The slate draws from iconic figures and traditions that shaped the Indian subcontinent, including stories inspired by Kali, Karna and Durga. It builds on the already-released Mahabharat: Ek Dharmayudh series, showing how ancient narratives can be reimagined for modern screens.
Jio Studios, India’s leading content studio and the media and content arm of Reliance Industries, continues its blockbuster run. The studio’s Dhurandhar franchise led by Dhurandhar and Dhurandhar: The Revenge has become the first Indian film series to cross Rs 3,000 crore worldwide. It also delivered three consecutive years of India’s highest-grossing Hindi films: Stree 2 (2024), Dhurandhar (2025) and Dhurandhar: The Revenge (2026). In just eight years, Jio Studios has assembled a library of over 160 films and series, with more than 60 titles winning over 500 awards. Other notable successes include Laapataa Ladies (India’s official Oscar entry 2025), Stree, Article 370, Shaitaan and Mrs.
The NAB unveiling marks another step in Jio Studios and Collective’s push to blend Indian storytelling talent with frontier technology proving that the future of cinema may well be both ancient in spirit and thoroughly modern in execution. For audiences who love epic tales with a fresh twist, Krishna promises to deliver divine drama, this time with a little help from the cloud.
