Mumbai, October 29, 2024. A delegation of the Producers Guild of India, India’s premier association of film, television and digital content producers, met with the President of Spain, His Excellency MrPedro Sanchez, during his visit to Mumbai on Wednesday, October 29, 2024

The Spanish President was accompanied by several senior dignitaries including,First Lady Ms Begona Gomez, Minister for Industry and Tourism Mr Jordi Hereu Boherand the Minister for Transportation and Sustainable Mobility Mr Óscar Puente. The Indian Ambassador to Spain, Mr Dinesh Patnaik also attended the meeting.

The Producers Guild of India (PGI) delegation was led by Mr Shibasish Sarkar, President of PGI and Group CEO Reliance Entertainment; Mr Aashish Singh of Red Chillies Entertainment; Mr Ankur Garg of Luv Films; Mr Shiv Chanana of T Series; and Mr Nitin Tej Ahuja, CEO of PGI; besides Mr Akshaye Widhani of Yashraj Films who hosted the meeting at Yashraj Studios in Mumbai.

At the meeting, the two sides discussed ways in which there can be greater collaboration between the filmmaking fraternities of both countries. President Sanchez expressed his government’s keen interest in strengthening ties with the Indian film industry, as evidenced by him taking time out to meet the PGI delegation in a very short 2-day official trip to India, the first by a Spanish President in 18 years.

In his remarks to the President Sanchez, Guild President Shibasish Sarkar shared some perspectives on the unique scale and multi-lingual nature of the Indian film industry, besides sharing factors that influence Indian producers to choose a certain country when they shoot outside of India.

President Sanchez expressed satisfaction at the free-flowing and constructive dialogue that took place at the meeting and said that it was only the start of a process of much closer collaborations between the two filmmaking communities.

Mumbai, September 28, 2024: Shibasish Sarkar has been unanimously re-elected as President of the Producers Guild of India for the third consecutive term at the 69th Annual General Meeting (AGM), held in Mumbai on September 27, 2024. Sarkar’s re-election underscores the ongoing trust and confidence placed in him by his peers within the industry.

The AGM also witnessed the re-election of Manish Goswami and Madhu Bhojwani as Vice Presidents, while Ashim Samanta and Fazila Allana were re-elected as Treasurers. Additionally, Aashish Singh, Dipti Kotak, and Ankur Garg were elected as Vice Presidents, fortifying the leadership team.

During the meeting, Sarkar shared insights on the evolving landscape of the Media & Entertainment industry, focusing on the challenges and opportunities facing content producers. Members also reviewed the Guild’s key activities from the past year and shared their perspectives on issues the Guild should prioritize in the coming year.

Shibasish Sarkar, President of the Producers Guild of India, expressed his gratitude:

"I am honoured and humbled by the confidence my peers have reposed in me by re-electing me as President of the Guild for the third year. I look forward to our members’ continued counsel and support, which lies at the heart of all that the Guild strives to achieve."

The Producers Guild of India remains committed to championing the interests of its members and advancing the growth of the Indian entertainment industry.

Mumbai, September 29, 2023: Shibasish Sarkar has been re-elected as President of the Producers Guild of India at the 69th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the association, held in Mumbai on September 29. He was re-elected unanimously as the President by the Guild’s Council of Management.

Additionally, Manish Goswami, Apoorva Mehta, Madhu Bhojwani and Ambika Khurana were re-elected as Vice Presidents, while Ashim Samanta and Fazila Allana were re-elected as Treasurers of the Guild.

At the AGM, the President shared his thoughts on the current landscape and outlook for content producers as also the larger Media & Entertainment sector. He stated that while a string of box office successes this year was very heartening, areas of concern remained in certain areas of the ecosystem as also structural issues that need to be addressed before we could truly put the disruption wrought by Covid behind us. Further, members were apprised of key activities and developments at the Guild during the preceding year and also shared their suggestions on issues and areas that the Guild should look at addressing in the coming year.

Mumbai: September 22 2022: Shibasish Sarkar was unanimously elected as President of the Producers Guild of India (“Guild”) at the first meeting of its newly constituted Guild Council of Management which was held immediately after the 68th Annual General Meeting on 21st September 2022.

Welcoming the President-elect, the incumbent President Siddharth Roy Kapur, said: “It has been a pleasure and an honour serving the production fraternity and I am delighted to pass the baton on to the able hands of Shibasish. I am sure he will do a stellar job and add further lustre to the Guild's reputation of spearheading the industry's interests.”

The President-elect Shibasish Sarkar said: “In his six years as Guild President, Siddharth has been a tireless, passionate and committed champion for our industry at a time of unprecedented challenges. I look forward to building on what he has accomplished and working alongside my colleagues to help address the challenges and build on the opportunities we have before us as an industry”.

The Guild’s leadership team fir 2022-2023 is as under:-

Shibasish Sarkar (President)

Mr. Manish Goswami (Vice President)

Mr. Apoorva Mehta (Vice President)

Mr. Sunjoy Waddhwa (Vice President)

Ms. Madhu Bhojwani (Vice President)

Ms. Ambika Khurana (Vice President)

Mr. Ashim Samanta (Treasurers)

Ms. Fazila Allana (Treasurers)

(Other Council Members)

Ms. Amrita Pandey

Ms. Ekta Kapoor

Ms. Zoya Akhtar

Mr. Ankur Garg

Mr. Asitkumarr Modi

Mr. Bikram Duggal

Mr. Dheeraj Kumar

Mr. Gaurav Banerjee

Mr. Hiren Gada

Mr. Pallab Bhattacharya

Mr. Rajan Shahi

Mr. Ramesh Sippy

Mr. Ritesh Sidhwani

Mr. Siddharth Roy Kapur

Mr. Sushilkumar Agrawal

Mr. Vishal Bhardwaj

Mr. Vishesh Bhatt

Permanent Members

Mr. Amit Khanna

Mr. Kiran Shantaram

Mr. Manmohan Shetty

Mr. Mukesh Bhatt

Mr. Randhir Kapoor

Member Emeritus

Mr. Kamalkumar Barjatya

Co-opted members

Ms. Dipti Kotak

Mr. Rajkumar Kohli

Special Invitees

Mr. Ajit Andhare

Mr. Akshaye Widhani

Mr. Farhan Akhtar

Mr. Karan Johar

Mr. Milan Luthria

Mr. Prem Sagar

Mr. Sameer Nair

Mr. Vipul D. Shah

The Producers Guild of India strongly condemns the brazen acts of violence, harassment and vandalism faced by the crew involved in the production of the series ‘Ashram’ in Bhopal.

Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident and the Guild is alarmed to note the frequency with which both the production and exhibition sectors are severely and illegally disrupted by various elements with impunity.

Content production contributes significantly to local economies, generates employment and promotes tourism, which is why authorities in India and across the world formulate policies to attract producers to their respective regions.

However, even more than incentives and benefits, the very minimum that production units should expect is for these authorities to provide the guarantees of safety and security for their units.

We urge the relevant authorities to take immediate and strict action against the perpetrators of these acts of violence and to bring them to justice

Mumbai, September 29, 2021 - Siddharth Roy Kapur has been re-elected as President of the Producers Guild of India at the 67th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the association, held virtually on September 29. He was re-elected unanimously as the President by the Guild’s Council of Management.

Thanking members for the trust reposed in him through the years, Mr Roy Kapur announced that after serving for six consecutive years as Guild President by the end of 2022, he would not be making himself available for re-election next year and hence this coming year would be a year of leadership transition for the Guild to seamlessly usher in a new President at the next AGM in 2022.

As President of the Guild since 2017, Mr Roy Kapur has been at the forefront of spearheading multiple industry initiatives over the past few years that strive to increase the market size and reach of Indian content and include advocacy of producer interests on matters like legislation, taxation and ease of doing business.

At the AGM, members were apprised of key activities and developments during the year. With the ongoing pandemic throwing up unprecedented challenges, the Guild has been at the forefront of leading the industry’s response to this disruption by formulating rigorous SOPs for safe shooting, advocating for shoot resumptions, organizing vaccination camps for members and facilitating financial assistance to daily wage workers through donations by Guild members.

A key development at the Guild’s AGM was a major expansion in the ranks of women producers in leadership roles. Madhu Bhojwani of Emmay Entertainment & Motion Pictures LLP and Ambika Khurana of Netflix India joined Incumbents Apoorva Mehta, Manish Goswami and Sunjoy Waddhwa as Vice Presidents of the Guild while Fazila Alllana of Sol Productions joined incumbent Ashim Samanta as Treasurer. Additionally, Shibahish Sarkar of Reliance Entertainment was also elected as Vice President.

Mumbai, September 30, 2020. Siddharth Roy Kapur was re-elected as President of the Producers Guild of India at its 66th AGM held on September 29, 2020. In light of the ongoing Covid pandemic, the meeting was conducted on the virtual platform, Zoom.

In addition to the President, the other incumbent office bearers were also re-elected. Namely, Manish Goswami, Apoorva Mehta and Sunjoy Waddhwa as Vice Presidents, and Ashim Samanta as Treasurer.

The Council of Management at the Guild was also expanded with the nomination of Zoya Akhtar, Srishti Behl Arya, Shibasish Sarkar and Ankur Garg as new members on the council.

A detailed Annual Report on the Guild’s activities was shared with the members at the AGM, which also saw fulsome tributes being paid to PGI’s Late CEO, Kulmeet Makkar.

Mumbai, September 14. 2020. The Producers Guild of India (PGI), the premier film, television and digital content producers’ body in India, today announced the appointment of Nitin Tej Ahuja as Chief Executive Officer.

Nitin, who assumes office today, joins the Guild after a career spanning more than two decades in which he has worked across various sectors in the Media & Entertainment industry including film, music, television, radio and publishing.

Announcing the appointment, Siddharth Roy Kapur, President of the Producers Guild of India, said “I have known Nitin for many years as someone with an expansive and in-depth understanding of the media and entertainment industry. He is uniquely equipped with the knowledge, experience and ability to take on the challenges and to build on the opportunities that will be presented by the unprecedented times ahead of us. I am confident that in this role, Nitin will be a huge asset to the PGI and to the industry as we move forward.”

Nitin Tej Ahuja stated, “As a long-time observer and admirer of the Guild’s wide-ranging and pathbreaking initiatives in championing the interests of content producers, I am honoured to serve in the continuation of the Guild’s untiring efforts. I look forward to working closely with the PGI President and members as we navigate the challenges brought about by the global pandemic and the vastly different landscape that awaits us in the post-Covid world”

Siddharth added, “I also want to take this opportunity to recognize the immense contribution of the late Kulmeet Makkar , in his role as CEO of the Guild for the past decade. His sudden demise left us all in grief, and created a huge void at the PGI. Kulmeet worked long and hard with passion and perseverance to bring the Guild to its present stature, and I have no doubt that Nitin will go on to ably build on this wonderful legacy.”

GUILD, IFTPC AND FWICE COME TOGETHER TO SUPPORT DAILY WAGE WORKER

April 2, 2020. Mumbai. The Producers Guild of India (Guild) and Indian Film & Television Producers Council (IFTPC) announced that they would partner with the Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE) to provide financial assistance to daily wage workers in the industry who have been most impacted by the shutdown.

Producers Guild of India (Guild) and Indian Film & Television Producers Council (IFTPC) had joined hands to set up a Relief Fund for daily wage workers affected by the production shutdown owing to the COVID-19 epidemic.

In a significant development, the FWICE has come forward to support this fundraising initiative of Guild and IFTPC by offering to set up a transparent and efficient mechanism to disburse these funds to daily wage workers most impacted by the shutdown, especially those have no other financial assistance or support available to them from any other source, ensuring that the financial assistance will be made to daily wage workers only through direct bank payments.

The first tranche of funds raised by Guild and IFTPC will be made available to FWICE for disbursement to daily wage workers in the first week of April 2020, and both Guild and IFTPC will aggressively continue their efforts to raise funds for this purpose.

To know more about how to make a contribution please contact- support@producersguildindia.com or indianfilmtvproducerscouncil@gmail.com

For further information on the initiative from Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE), you may contact federationcineemployees@yahoo.co.in

Official Statement

Kulmeet Makkar, Chief Executive Officer, Producers Guild Of India

The health and safety of our colleagues is of paramount importance to the Producers Guild of India. The industry’s united decision to suspend shooting between the period 19th - 31st March 2020 is the need of the hour and we fully support it.

In the coming days, we will discuss details with our members on the modalities of postponing our production plans, keeping in mind the ongoing threat of Covid-19. We will continue to monitor the situation and take further decisions accordingly.

Mumbai 9th March 2020. Producers Guild of India and Polish Film Institute have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to boost their relationship for mutual benefits of the film production industries between India and Poland.

This agreement was signed at India International Film Tourism Conclave (IIFTC) in Mumbai on 7th March 2020.

Both the parties, who are esteemed organisations representing their respective entertainment industries, have agreed to join hands with the ultimate objective to collaborate together for sharing ideas and best practices on domestic and international film production, shooting and promotion, further mutual understanding of their film production markets and increase cultural understanding, enable opportunities for dialogue, creation and sharing of ideas and best practices, utilising their best efforts to facilitate seamless and cost effective use of local services with respect to securing film agreements across India and Poland’s agencies, organisations and Government authorities and sharing references on Polish and Indian production and services companies in their respective countries.

Radosław Śmigulski, General Director of Polish Film Institute states that “We wish to enhance our relationship with India and look forward to work with Producers Guild of India to facilitate further opportunities for dialogue and best practices for a forward-thinking film production business. I’m sure that our both cinemtographies with so rich yet quite different tradition in filmmaking have a lot to offer to each other.”

Kulmeet Makkar, Chief Executive Officer of Producers Guild of India states that “This agreement of mutual co-operation with Polish Film Institute will help to explore new and innovative opportunities to further progress the relationship between the film production industries in India and Poland. We are confident that this collaboration will lead to more common content development and co-productions between India and Poland”

Mumbai, 25th September 2019, Siddharth Roy Kapur was unanimously elected President of the Producers Guild of India for a 4th consecutive term at its 65th AGM held on 24th September in Mumbai.

As part of the management team, Vijay Singh, Manish Goswami, Apoorva Mehta and SunjoyWaddhwa have also been reelected as Vice Presidents while AshimSamanta will also continue in the capacity of Treasurer. At the same time MadhuBhojwani, Amrita Pandey and Ritesh Sidhwani were nominated as new members in the Guild Council of Management. KulmeetMakkar will continue to serve as the Chief Executive officer of the Producers Guild of India.

As the President of the Guild, Siddharth Roy Kapur has been at the forefront in spearheading multiple industry initiatives over the past three years. The Producers Guild of India has emerged as the leading voice for the industry and has been actively engaging with the Government on various industry challenges and opportunities such as reduction in GST rates on cinema tickets, local bodies entertainment tax, opportunities to grow cinema screens in the country and simplifying processes for filming in India. Alongside, the Guild has signed key strategic agreements with many global production bodies like the Nordic Film Commissions representing Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Iceland, the European Film Commissioners Network (EUFCN) and most recently with the state of New Jersey, in addition to developing film policies with many Indian States.

Siddharth Roy Kapur stated that “I look forward to building on the various initiatives we have taken as an industry in the last few years, to make it easier for our members to produce great content across all mediums - cinema, television and digital. This industry represents the soft power of our country, with our stories having the potential to reach the hearts and minds of millions across the world. We would like to continue to work with the Central and State Governments in initiatives to enable this and our long-term vision is for the content industry to achieve its full potential as the predominant cultural ambassador of India to the world. We truly believe that with the right support this sector can play a huge role in our quest to make this century ‘the Indian century’.”

KulmeetMakkar, Chief Executive Officer of the Producers Guild of India said“Under Siddharth Roy Kapur’s dynamic leadership, Producers Guild of India has progressed by leaps and bounds and has been actively engaging with the Government and also had the privilege to present the growth opportunities related to our sector to the Honourable Prime Minister ShriNarendraModi and we look forward to continuing to engage with the Government and stakeholders on initiatives that will helpto unleash the full potential of the industry.”

The Producers Guild of India is the premier film, television and digital content producers’ body representing the pre-eminent producers of audio-visual content in India, with a significant collective contribution to the country’s economy and workforce.

Siddharth Roy Kapur is an acclaimed producer of many critically appreciated and commercially successful films. He founded his film and digital media production house Roy Kapur Films, following a prolific career at Disney and UTV. Last year he achieved the distinction of being named one of Variety Magazine’s Top 500 influential people in entertainment globally, amongst only 12 Indians to feature on this list.

Partnership will further cement New Jersey as the premier film and television destination; New Jersey offers one of the most attractive tax incentive programs in U.S. for television and filmmakers

Mumbai, India -- The State of New Jersey, Choose New Jersey, New Jersey Motion Picture and Television Commission and the Producers Guild of India today signed a memorandum of understanding to further enhance their mutual relationship and facilitate the shooting of Indian films in New Jersey. New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed the MOU on behalf of New Jersey in order to bolster New Jersey’s film industry, which received a boost through the Governor’s Film Tax Credit Program. New Jersey offers one of the most attractive incentive programs in the country for television and filmmakers including a 2% diversity tax credit bonus.

“There is a natural partnership waiting to be uncovered between New Jersey and Bollywood,” said Governor Phil Murphy. “Our state has a diverse population and unrivalled geography that keeps us at the top of the list for film production. We are proud to be one of the host locations – alongside Los Angeles – of the International Gujarati Film Festival, proving that New Jersey provides a tremendous value that can favorably compete and win against any other U.S. location.”

The MOU focuses on idea sharing as well as best practices on film production and promotion. It will also assist the Producers Guild of India (PGI) with the production of films and other cinematic content including location scouting and support for Bollywood film production in New Jersey.

“Today’s announcement facilitates an exciting new relationship for producers in India and motivates us to bring more of our productions to New Jersey,” said Siddharth Roy Kapur, President, Producers Guild of India. “We look forward to bringing more Indian movies to the scenic Garden State in the years ahead.”

PGI is the premier film, television and digital content producers’ body that represents the most important producers of audio-visual content in Bollywood. Established in 1954 by industry veterans, PGI assumes various roles including development of film, television and new media production sector in India by working with the Indian government and stakeholders on critical industry challenges please visit www.producersguildindia.com

“Through this collaboration with one of the world’s largest film industries, New Jersey is further staking its claim as the premier location for film and television production,” said Jose Lozano, President & CEO of Choose New Jersey. “The partnership we are starting today will help New Jersey attract more producers and film crews, helping grow our economy and attract top-talent to our state.”

The New Jersey Economic Development Authority helps attract television and filmmakers to the state through the New Jersey Film Tax Credit. New Jersey’s robust film tax credit equals 30 percent of qualified film production expenses, or 35 percent of qualified film production expenses incurred for services performed and tangible person property purchased through vendors whose primary business is located in Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester, Mercer or Salem County. For eligibility criteria please visit www.njeda.com/filmdigitalmediataxcredit.

“Attracting investment in high-wage, high-growth sectors such as film and digital media is a critical component of Governor Murphy’s plan for a stronger, fairer New Jersey economy,” said NJEDA Chief Executive Officer Tim Sullivan. “New Jersey’s global connectivity, deep talent pool, and diverse array of cities, suburbs, and rural areas make it an ideal location for film productions and the Film Tax Credit further enhances our value proposition. We are excited to work with PGI to bring more Indian productions to New Jersey.”

New Jersey has attracted several high-profile films through this program such as “JOKER,” a film starring Joaquin Phoenix that examines the iconic Batman villain’s origins, as well as Steven Spielberg-directed screen adaptation of “West Side Story.” The films utilize New Jersey’s most diverse cities of Newark and Paterson.

About Choose New Jersey
Choose New Jersey, Inc. is a privately funded non-profit economic development organization charged with encouraging and nurturing economic growth throughout New Jersey. The organization offers companies that locate or expand their operations in the State a variety of complimentary services including market intelligence, site visits, State assistance information and connections to a wide range of public and private professional services. For more information, visit www.choosenj.com.

Cannes. 18th May 2019. Producers Guild of India and European Film Commissioners Network (EuFCN) have entered into an agreement to enhance their relationship for the mutual benefit of the film production industries between India and European countries.

This important agreement was signed today at the India Pavilion at the Cannes Film Festival 2019. Both the parties have agreed to enter into an agreement with aim to primarily work together to share ideas and best practices on domestic and international film production, shooting and promotion and use their best endeavours to enable the seamless and most cost-effective use of local services and facilities with regard to securing agreements to film across the respective countries´ agencies, organisations and Government authorities.

Truls Kontny, President of the European Film Commissioners Network states that “We wish to enhance our relationship with India and look forward to work with Producers Guild of India to facilitate further opportunities for dialogue and the creation of ideas, sharing of ideas and best practices for a forward thinking film production business. Hopefully this collaboration will also lead to more common content development and co-productions of TV-series and film projects between India and the European countries”

Kulmeet Makkar, Chief Executive Officer of Producers Guild of India says that “We are delighted to partner with European Film Commissioners Network. Indian content industry already has working relationships with many of the European countries and I am confident that this agreement will help further their relationship for the mutual benefit of the film production industries between India and European countries”.

Mumbai. 9th May 2019. Animal Welfare Board of India emphasised on the significant role Animal Owners need to play in the entire process of obtaining permissions for usage of Animals in filming in India. During the first workshop held for Animal Owners by Producers Guild of India in Mumbai on 8th May 2019, Ms. Prachi Jain, Assistant Secretary, Animal Welfare Board of India explained the features of the new online portal for obtaining permissions for usage of Animals in films, television programs and web content.

This is the first such workshop conducted by Animal Welfare Board of India in association with Producers Guild of India and plans to conduct many more such workshops across the country.

Kulmeet Makkar, Chief Executive Officer, Producers Guild of India states that “The focus of the Animal Welfare Board of India to enhance Animal Owners’ role is extremely encouraging. Animals require proper care and parenting which we believe can be provided by Animal Owners. There may be some initial concerns of the Animal owners in migrating to an online model which we believe will be ironed out in due course. We are confident that the new system will help in making the process of obtaining permissions more transparent and simpler”

Dr Neelam Bala, Secretary, Animal Welfare Board of India expressed happiness with the response from the Animal Owners who turned out in big numbers for the first workshop held in Mumbai on 8th May 2019 in association with Producers Guild of India. The entire online process of registration and making application was explained to the Animal Owners so that they can enrol before 31st May 2019. I am confident that these efforts will help us achieve our objective in simplifying processes for the industry to film with Animals. We now look forward in taking this initiative to other locations across the country.

Producers Guild of India and Animal Welfare Board of India conduct workshop for the Animal Owners

Mumbai. 6th May 2019. In order to simplify the approval process for usage of Animals in films, television programs and web content, Animal Welfare Board of India has decided to conduct workshops in various locations in the country to create awareness amongst Animal Owners on the new online system to obtain necessary approvals.

The first workshop organised by Producers Guild of India is scheduled to take place in Mumbai on 8th May 2019 in which the officials of Animal Welfare Board of India will meet Animal Owners to explain the revised process to seek pre shoot permissions for providing Animals for filming across platforms.

Dr Neelam Bala, Secretary, Animal Welfare Board of India said that “We are happy to launch the new online approval system which we believe will address Industry’s concerns on approval delays and transparency. The new portal www.ospar.nic.in is already active and can be accessed by Animal Owners and Producers. During these workshops, AWBI team will be explaining the new online system to the Animal Owners. We are extremely happy to partner with Industry bodies such as Producers Guild of India who have been relentlessly pursuing the board to come up with a simplified and efficient system of obtaining permissions”.

Kulmeet Makkar, Chief Executive Officer, Producers Guild of India states that “This is a very significant move and we are grateful to the Animal Welfare board of India for making the entire process of usage of Animals in films, television programs and web productions simpler, faster and transparent. Many of the producers faced various kind of bottlenecks and harassment in the past while seeking permissions for filming with Animals. We therefore believe that the online process launched by Animal Welfare Board of India would eliminate unnecessary complexities and also importantly the role of middlemen in seeking permissions”.

Mumbai. 28th February 2019. Producers Guild of India and Nordic Film Commissions have entered into an agreement in Mumbai recently to enhance their relationship for the mutual benefit of the film production industries between India and Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Iceland.

The objective of this agreement is to primarily work together to share ideas and best practices on domestic and international film production, shooting and promotion. Producers Guild of India and Nordic Film Commissions see this co-operative agreement as one which can further all countries´ understanding of their film production markets and increase cultural understanding for mutual benefit.

On signing this agreement, Truls Kontny, President of Nordic Film Commissions states that “We wish to enhance our relationship with India and look forward to work with Producers Guild of India to facilitate further opportunities for dialogue and the creation of ideas, sharing of ideas and best practices for a forward thinking film production business”.

Mikael Svensson, Vice President of Nordic Film Commissions, adds that” Hopefully this collaboration will also lead to more common content development and co-productions of TV-series and film projects between India and the Nordic countries”

Siddharth Roy Kapur, President of Producers Guild of India believes that “This agreement of mutual co-operation with Nordic Film Commissions will help to explore new and innovative opportunities to further progress the relationship between the film production industries in India and Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Iceland”.

Kulmeet Makkar, Chief Executive Officer of Producers Guild of India says that “It would be of mutual interest that the production companies from India have the possibility to get references from Nordic Film Commissions on producers and production service companies across these five countries - Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Iceland and at the same time, Producers Guild of India will be supporting Nordic Film Commissions’ endeavour to promote these countries in India”.

Mumbai 11th February 2019 - Producers Guild of India (PGI) and Producers Guild of America (PGA) recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to formalize their long-standing association and to commit to building a strong collaborative system of mutual exchange, assistance and co-operation between the film, television and new media sectors of India and United States of America.

As per the MoU, PGI and PGA will share best practices in production, shooting and promotion, initiate exchange of visits between delegations of both Guilds to evolve opportunities for better dialogue and understanding, thus creating a mutually conducive environment for the growth and progress of entertainment production in India and United States of America through enhanced co-operation, interaction and constructive support.

Siddharth Roy Kapur, President of Producers Guild of India said “The MoU between the Producers Guild of America and the Producers Guild of India is a landmark initiative with the long-term vision to create a strong and mutually beneficial relationship between the two most prolific entertainment industries in the world. The MoU will provide an excellent platform for the production and creative fraternities on both sides to share ideas, expertise and best practices, and will also create new avenues for creative collaboration between some of the most talented and experienced minds from both these industries”.

Kayvan Mashayekh, Esq. Co-Chair, International Committee, Producers Guild of America said “Incredibly excited to reinvigorate our ongoing collaboration with Producers Guild of India as we find new common ground for our mutual members. India’s burgeoning audience is increasing at a rapid pace as the content explosion continues creating more demand for qualified producers. Servicing that need for countless projects being envisioned places the PGA and PGI members at an import crossroad in hopefully working together to make those dreams a reality”.

Mumbai. 6th February 2019. Producers Guild of India wholeheartedly applauds Government of India for giving cabinet approval for the amendment to the Cinematograph Act, 1952 to tackle film piracy and copyright infringement in line with the announcement made by the Honourable Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi to tackle the menace of camcording and film piracy during the inaugural function of the National Museum of Indian cinema at Mumbai on 19th January 2019.

Siddharth Roy Kapur, President of the Producers Guild of India said “This is a significant move to protect intellectual property in our country. This communicates to all stakeholders that as a country we respect and reward innovation and creativity, and will ensure that the rights of owners and creators of this intellectual property are safeguarded.”

Mumbai 1st February 2019. “We are delighted that the immense contribution of Indian cinema towards employment generation in the country has been acknowledged and applauded in Parliament during the presentation of the Union Budget. The announcement of a single-window clearance mechanism for Indian film makers filming within India is a significant step and has the potential to play a huge role in boosting tourism in the country. The amendments in the Anti Camcording provisions will support the industry’s growth by curtailing illegal recordings of films in cinema halls and will go a long way towards reducing piracy.”

Mumbai; 22nd December 2018 The Film Industry wholeheartedly welcomes the decision to reduce GST on Cinema tickets, exceeding Rs. 100 to 18% from 28% and up to Rs. 100 to 12% from 18%.

Siddharth Roy Kapur, President of Producers Guild of India states “On behalf of the Indian film industry, I would like to thank the government for taking this progressive step. This will help the industry move forward positively with increased investments in both exhibition infrastructure and creative development, enabling even better cinema and greater screen density across the country. We look forward to continuing to engage with the government on initiatives that will help to unleash the full potential of the film industry. Cinema can be a significant instrument of Indian soft power around the world, while continuing to act as a uniting force for all Indians - a role it has played for more than a century”

In the past one year since Goods and Services Tax (‘GST’) implementation, the Film Industry was grappling with changes, challenges and issues arising post implementation of the GST legislation. This was majorly due to cinema tickets placed in the highest tax slab wherein cinema tickets whose price exceeds INR 100 were subject to GST @28% while those whose price is up to INR 100 are subject to GST @18%. Such high GST rates resulted in high ticket prices for cinema goers.

The Film Industry truly appreciates the continued endeavours of the GST Council, The Central and State Governments towards resolving issues faced by the stakeholders in the smooth functioning of GST.

17th November 2018, The #MeToo movement that took social media in India by storm a month ago gave rise to several questions about the existence of internal mechanisms that can provide support to women and help create a healthy workplace environment for women employees. Many were not aware that every organisation has to provide an internal body to address the issue of sexual misconduct. Even if women were aware of the existence of such mechanisms, they did not reach out to them. As a result, many incidents of sexual harassment have gone unreported. Often, organisations were in denial of such cases.

In light of these events, the Producers Guild Of India held an Extraordinary General Meeting as a part of its sensitisation programme. THe agenda for the meeting, held in Mumbai, was to make it mandatory for its members to implement The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 (PoSH). The Guild unanimously passed a resolution to amend its by-laws and thus make it compulsory to constitute an Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) for organisations with a minimum of 10 members.

“There is no wrong time to do the right thing. This is a start. We are helping you to change,” said Siddharth Roy Kapur, President, Producers Guild Of India, as a part of his opening note. He stated that sexual harassment is not a ‘film industry problem’ and that it is a part of multiple industries. Stressing on the PoSH guidelines, he talked about the importance of having an ICC to create a secure and healthy working environment for women at their workplaces.

He thanked the subcommittee for helping enable and empower the members to implement the guidelines, and said that complying with them is more important than merely affirming. Even though the film industry lags behind the curve in terms of implementation, he said there is no wrong time to change. “This is a start; it is not something that can be solved in a day. We are here and are committed to helping you through the process,” he said.

As a premiere body of producers within the industry, the Producers Guild Of India aims at being an enabler in ensuring that all its members are compliant with the law as a part of its basic hygiene. It also intends to help, educate and enable its members to be able to set up the right processes within their organisations.

Complykaro is a compliance service provider that helps companies comply with their legal obligations. Its Founder and CEO, Vishal Kedia shared that 99 per cent of women are harassed at their workplace and 85 per cent of women are not willing to file a complaint. Those who are not willing to lodge a complaint with the ICC can go to court, after which criminal procedures will be followed. He stated that the issue of non-compliance stems from ignorance of the law.

Kulmeet Makkar, CEO, Producers Guild Of India, mentioned that the Guild will be holding workshops to train members who come under the purview of PoSH.

Evolution

Until the 1990s, women facing sexual harassment at the workplace had to lodge a complaint under Sections 354 and 509 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). In 1997, the Supreme Court created a binding set of guidelines by emphasising the freedom of equality guaranteed by the Indian Constitution under Articles 14, 15 and 21. However, the non-compliance did not call for any punitive measures. Following the Nirbhaya case in 2012, the Government of India formulated PoSH.

Process

Through his presentation, Kedia shed light on the definition of sexual harassment and the process of filing a complaint against the perpetrator. The complainant will have three months to make a complaint with her organisation’s ICC from the date of the last harassment incident against her. The ICC next meets to review whether the complaint is prima facie maintainable.

If it is, an inquiry is carried out which needs to be completed within 90 days. Then it is required to prepare a report of its findings and recommendation. If the allegation is proved, the employer is required to take action. If the allegation is found malicious, the employer has the right to punish the complainant. The entire process also requires confidentiality, the breaching of which will result in a penalty.

Conciliation is an important feature of the law. An in-built redressal mechanism must exist to resolve the grievances of the complainant through mutual consent. Interim relief is to be provided to the aggrieved woman to avoid discomfort that may arise during interaction of both parties during the pendency of the inquiry.

The principle of natural justice is important to give equal opportunities to both sides. A person will be held guilty beyond reasonable doubt based on solid evidence. The law will provide monetary compensation to the harassed woman if she is going through emotional trauma. If a woman, however, fails to substantiate her allegations, it will be declared false. If a person is aggrieved by the ICC’s recommendation, she can challenge it before the appellate tribunal.

Internal Complaints Committee

It is required for an ICC to have 50 per cent representation of women. The ICC has to constitute three members – a presiding officer who should be a woman employed at a senior level, a second member who is preferably dedicated to the cause of women and a third member from a non-governmental organisation to impart unbiased judgments. If an organisation, however, does not have any women member, then an external committee has to be set up. According to the Government, the ICC carries the power of a quasi-judiciary authority and a civil court.

Sexual Harassment Against Men

Sexual harassment against male employees at the workplace comes under the purview of an unwritten form of code of conduct, which needs to be dealt with by the Human Resources manager.

Facets Of The Law

In order to make a complaint, a woman need not necessarily be an employee of the organisation; she could be a visitor, a customer, a bystander, an intern, a job seeker or an employee on contractual payroll. The respondent, however, must be an employee. Even if an incident of sexual harassment takes place outside the ambit of an office, a complaint can still be lodged. The law is meant to be more preventive than punitive by making people understand the actions that may or may not constitute sexual harassment.

If the aggrieved is physically or emotionally incapable, then another person can make a complaint on her behalf. Obligations such as putting up posters, formation of policy, sensitising employees and skill building of ICC members should take place to prevent instances of sexual harassment. Discrimination of any kind cannot be made on the basis of gender. Any kind of non-compliance with any provisions of the law may result in criminal prosecution of the management.

Local Complaints Committee

Organisations with less than 10 employees are required to have a Local Complaints Committee. It should be set up in each district by the District Officer wherein the harassed can make complaints against the employer of her organisation.

Non-Compliance

Non-compliance with PoSH will result in a penalty of Rs 50,000 for the first violation. For subsequent harassments, the penalty will be doubled and their business licences annulled.

Siddharth Roy Kapur - President, Producers Guild Of India

We set up a sub-committee within the Guild a few months ago to be able to deal with what was going on all around us. And I think the committee has been extremely proactive in the steps that we have decided to take. One of the steps was to amend the by-laws of the Guild, to make it mandatory for members to give us an affidavit stating that they are complying with PoSH (Prevention of Sexual Harassment) laws and regulations. The EGM held today (Nov 14) was to ask the members of the Guild to give us an affidavit within 30 days.

But we also want to enable and empower them during the course of that. We conducted a workshop by an esteemed third-party agency which is going to be helping members who have not already instituted an Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) in their companies, to do so. And those who already have this committee in their organisations… we want it to be as strong as they can make it. We wanted to take them through the PoSH guidelines, what they entail, what sexual harassment involves, what it doesn’t and therefore to give them a full sense of the law, and to explain to them practically how to implement it within their organisations. So, we want to help our members with workshops over a continuous period of time so that, number one, they can comply with the law and, second, we are also enabling them to do so.

There are a couple of things I will say on this matter. One is that there is a large majority of our members who have already been complying. When we hear about cases that have come up in the last few weeks and months, it seems as if they are representative of the whole industry, but they are not. However, there are some members who have not complied yet. We have taken this as an opportunity to be able to get that to happen as well and to increase awareness.

Sometimes, it takes a shaking-up for people to realise that there are certain steps that need to be taken. This seems like one of those times, not just in the film industry but I think for many other industries too. We happen to be the one industry that’s in the limelight and gets all the attention but this is happening in banking, insurance, journalism, law… it’s happening everywhere. I think in the same way that attitudes have changed within those industries over the last few years, everyone will acknowledge that all our attitudes towards this have changed. It’s the same thing in the film industry.

The basic premise of law is that both sides, in any case, have to be heard. There should be such trials. But the Guild is not sitting here as a judge, jury and executioner, that’s for sure. The best that we think we can do, and the most productive we can be, is to be able to empower our members to do the right thing. But the right thing has to be done. That hold true for the person who is making an accusation as well as the person who is being accused.

Mukesh Bhatt, Guild Council Member

I endorse this to the fullest. I feel it is the primary duty of every good and healthy organisation to see that none of its members – whether they are in the office or in the administrative domain or in a workplace like a film shoot – are vulnerable to any kind of exploitation because that is the worst kind of thing to happen to any human being.

For us, my brother and I, who head the company, the members of our shooting unit and of our office are like our children. It becomes a parental duty to protect our children and see that none, especially the weaker, are even remotely exploited. It is an unbearable and repulsive thought that anything like that could happen in our domain. I feel this is something which was very much needed. I welcome this and I feel this is the correct way to take things forward.

If there is a secure environment, that should open the windows to more women to feel comfortable. They will feel less vulnerable and more confident. That is what is needed. I do not want my daughter to go to an office where she feels vulnerable. I have a daughter. I have a sister. So this is my concern. PoSH is a welcome sign. Things will now happen for the better. People will not feel scared any more, especially women. It is our moral duty to see that we give them not only physical security, but also psychological security, which is very important. I think the amended by-laws will do a lot of good.

My sister is setting up an ICC in our production company as she runs the administrative part of the business. I look at the big picture. She is doing it very proactively. My daughter, Sakshi, is the director of the company. Fortunately, I have my sister and my daughter who are taking care of the shoot and the office. They are best suited to look after it as they are both women.

Sneha Rajani, Sub-Committee Head of PoSH Regulations

When this whole #MeToo movement broke out, Siddharth Roy Kapur immediately reached out to us, saying we should do something about this proactively and not stay silent. The 10-11 of us that are on the committee immediately agreed, saying we should address this head-on and not take a back seat. That is why we very quickly formed this committee.

We realised that awareness of the law was very poor among producers. It is mandatory by law for people to have an ICC in place, if you have more than 10 employees. It was shocking to see that not many in the fraternity knew about it. We decided that we must first build awareness among our fraternity, educate them and sensitise them about what the law is, what the requirements of the law are, and how it is necessary and important for you to be compliant.

Therefore, the first thing we did was to train ourselves as a committee. We had an awareness programme and we are changing our by-laws whereby we are making it compulsory for all Guild members to be compliant with the law, and to implement this within the next 30 days, starting this week, and providing us with a declaration that they are compliant with it. Failure to do so and failure to give us appropriate reasons as to why they haven’t done it in 30 days will entail expulsion from the Guild.

People just did not have any awareness about this law, which is mandatory. Corporates follow it. For example, Sony Pictures, who I represent, has been following it ever since Vishaka (Vishaka Guidelines) came into being as a regulation. Otherwise, there is no awareness of this among small producers and small production houses, which is what we are trying to change through various activities like sending out mailers, arranging workshops, awareness and training programmes for Guild members. There are quite a few steps that we have taken and are going to take in the weeks and months to come.

Priti Shahani, Committee Member, Producers Guild of India

Junglee Pictures is a part of the Times of India Group and we have always had an ICC that is part of the group. We are aligned to that ICC. We have had training and sensitization, which is mandatory for us even before this came out.

There are many questions about people misusing this movement and the first thing is that we should begin by believing that people will not do this. The moment we seed this, we’re creating an environment of mistrust, which is very unfortunate. It serves as a deterrent for women to come forward because then they will start thinking that they will not be believed. Let’s begin this as a positive movement and we are trying to create an environment for more people to come forward and we would like to place trust in the fact that it will not be baseless.

Apoorva Mehta, Committee Member, Producers Guild of India

At Dharma Productions, we have had an ICC for the last four to five years because we have a sizeable women population in our organisation in the back office and also on the field in terms of production. I think the law is designed in such a way that if someone is doing this for malicious gain, they will be penalised equally. We would like to believe in the goodness of humanity that people are not going to misuse it. Eventually, the whole process where people have to come forward and say something is upsetting mentally, physically and emotionally.

I would like to believe that nobody would do something like this to gain something. But it will help people who are going through this problem and ensure that there is a place they can go to and ensure closure for anything that has happened to them. In that sense, it is an extraordinarily well-designed Act as it takes everything into account and encourages prevention as opposed to redressal.

Kulmeet Makkar, Chief Executive Officer, Producers Guild of India

The Producers Guild of India is fully committed to ensuring implementation of the Prevention of Sexual Harassment (PoSH) Act 2013 by every single Guild member-organisation as provided by the law. We are playing the role of an enabler by supporting our members through workshops conducted by specialised agencies. Amending Guild bylaws to make it mandatory for members to implement the PoSH Act 2013 confirms our belief in making our industry a safer place for women to work in. We will continue to take these efforts forward and wholeheartedly support and work with every member to ensure the safety of women at the workplace.

Mumbai, 15th November 2018, Producers Guild of India at its Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) on 14th November, 2018 in Mumbai unanimously passed a resolution to amend its by-laws thereby making it mandatory for all those members who fall under the purview of the The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act 2013 (PoSH), to implement the requisite laws including constitution of Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) and accordingly submit a declaration to the Producers Guild of India confirming enforceability of necessary PoSH guidelines within their organisation.

Prior to the EGM, Producers Guild of India also conducted a workshop through a specialized external agency which made a comprehensive presentation highlighting various facets and provisions required to be statutorily executed under the PoSH Act 2013. The objective of the EGM along with the workshop was not only to educate members on the legal provisions of the PoSH Act 2013 but also sensitize them about the growing need and urgency to institute and implement robust processes at their workplaces.

President of the Producers Guild of India, Siddharth Roy Kapur stated that “It is incredibly heartening to see the unanimous support that our members have extended towards the initiatives taken by the Guild to help make workplaces in our industry safe spaces for women. We are committed to working closely with our members to ensure complete compliance with PoSH guidelines across the industry.”

Mumbai, 10th October2018 The Producers Guild of India is committed to work towards making workplaces in the industry safe spaces for everyone. In this regard a special committee has been instituted within the Guild to address the issue of sexual harassment at the workplace within our industry. The membership composition of this committee is as follows – Sneha Rajani (Committee Head) Apoorva Mehta Ekta Kapoor Fazila Allana Jyoti Deshpande Kiran Rao Kulmeet Makkar Madhu Bhojwani Priti Shahani Rohan Sippy Siddharth Roy Kapur

The first meeting of the committee was held on 10th October, and it was resolved to immediately - 1. Ensure that our members are sent a copy of the Gazette of India with notifications issued on Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace, so that they may implement these practices in their establishments at the earliest, if they have not done so already.

2. Organize specialised workshops with the support of professional agencies, to guide our members in how to implement robust processes and best practices to deal with sexual harassment at their workplaces - whether in their offices or on the sets of their productions.

The Guild will organize multiple sessions of these workshops over the coming weeks and months, to enable all our members and their teams to participate.

The special committee that has been set in place will meet frequently in the coming days to ensure that this is an ongoing and sustained effort, that will lead to a safer environment for all members of our industry

Mumbai, 9th October 2018 Producers Guild of India extends its complete support to the movement to call out and report sexual harassment and abuse whenever and wherever it occurs in our industry. We believe that there is an urgent need to set up a robust process to ensure the highest standards of safety for employees and crew members at the workplace - whether in offices or on sets of productions. We are instituting a committee within the Guild to lead this effort, and we are determined to stay the course till workplaces in the industry are safe spaces for everyone.

Mumbai, 28th September, 2018 - Siddharth Roy Kapur has been re-elected as the President of the Producers Guild of India. He has previously served as the President since January 2017. It was a unanimous decision taken at the first meeting of newly appointed Guild Council on 28 th  September 2018.

In addition, Sunjoy Waddhwa the eminent television producer has also been elected as the Vice President of the Producers Guild of India. At the same time Priti Shahani and Fazila Allana have been nominated to the Guild Council of Management along with Milan Luthria and Akshaye Widhani who have been included in the Guild Council as Special Invitees.

Vijay Singh, Manish Goswami and Apoorva Mehta continue to be part of the Guild Management team as Vice Presidents in addition to Ashim Samanta who will also continue as the Treasurer.

As the President, Siddharth Roy Kapur has been the leading voice of the industry over the past two years. The Guild has recently signed key strategic alliances such as the one with United Kingdom’s Producers Alliance for Cinema and Television and has engaged with key industry and Government stakeholders successfully.

Kulmeet Makkar, the Chief Executive Officer of the Producers Guild of India stated that “Guild has emerged as the most recognised and respected forum for industry progress under the leadership of Siddharth Roy Kapur and we are moving towards becoming an all-encompassing producers’ body considering the growing importance of television and strong emergence of new media such as Netflix India who have recently joined Guild as its member”.

Siddharth Roy Kapur is an eminent Producer of several critically acclaimed and commercially successful films. He founded his own film and digital media production house Roy Kapur Films after a long and successful stint at Disney and UTV.  He was recently named as one of Variety Magazine’s Top 500 influential people in entertainment globally, amongst only 12 Indians to feature on this list.

Mumbai 7th February 2018 Producers Guild of India & Producers Alliance for Cinema and Television UK (Pact) signed a monumental MoU on 6th February 2018 at the inaugural India-UK Createch Summit in Mumbai.

The MoU is intended to lead to a more collaborative relationship between the UK and Indian production sectors and for both countries to share best practices, projects and ideas.

As part of the MoU, the Producers Guild of India will join the Global Creative Alliance and will become the Indian partner for the Production Platform, an online platform where companies can find or post projects if they are seeking a co-production partner. The platform was launched in October 2017, with funding from the Department for International Trade, and has already attracted 13 countries with 25 countries set to be on board by summer 2018.

Pact’s Director of International Development, Dawn McCarthy-Simpson MBE, said: “The MoU with the Producers Guild of India is a great move towards a more collaborative relationship with the Indian TV production sector. The addition of the Producers Guild of India will allow both Indian and UK producers to begin to access co-production ideas and projects through the Production Platform which will hopefully lead to future successful collaborations.”

Siddharth Roy Kapur, President – Producers Guild of India stated that “the MoU between PACT and Producers Guild of India is a significant step in the ongoing collaboration between the creative industries of UK & India. While the MoU largely focuses on sharing expertise, knowledge and best practices between both the sides, I am also keenly looking forward to the exciting opportunity for producers from both the countries to use the online platform created by PACT as part of the Global Creative Alliance”.

The Minister of State for Trade and Export Promotion, Baroness Rona Fairhead was in Mumbai to launch the India-UK Createch Summit, and announced the signing of the MoU.

Speaking about the Summit, she said: “The UK is a world leader in the creative and technology industries, and it is inspiring to see the connections between UK and Indian companies, especially in so vibrant a creative hub as Mumbai.

The opportunities for growth are plenty, and as an international economic department we will continue to use trade missions not only to boost UK exports, but also to help businesses of all sizes forge ties and build relationships with potential buyers and investors.”

Mumbai: 3rd October 2017. The Producers Guild of India affirmed its unequivocal support to the decision of the Multiplex Cinema Chains in Greater Chennai to discontinue screening of films as a mark of protest against imposition of Local Body Entertainment Tax on cinema tickets (LBET). It is important to note that the Local Body Entertainment Tax imposed by Tamil Nadu Government is in addition to the GST rate which is already 28%.

The President of the Producers Guild of India Siddharth Roy Kapur stated that “The decision of Tamil Nadu Government to impose Local Body Entertainment Tax in addition to Goods & Services Tax on cinema tickets is a highly retrograde step and the Producers Guild of India urges the Tamil Nadu Government to withdraw this regressive tax at the earliest in the larger interests of all sectors of the Indian film industry”.

The Guild producer members in the recently held meeting decided to discontinue screening their films in all the Cinema halls in Greater Chennai to voice their opposition against imposition of Local Body Entertainment Tax by the government. The members expressed their serious concerns that If the Local Body Entertainment Tax levied by the Tamil Nadu Government in Greater Chennai is not withdrawn then it will lead to a significantly huge burden on the pockets of the local audience in the State who would have to shell out in excess of 50% tax on cinema tickets.

Producers, distributors and cinema owners all across India are clear that they will be unable to conduct their business in any city, district or state where films are subjected to Local Body Entertainment Tax over and above GST, and any such move will only lead to closure of cinemas as has happened in Chennai city.

Mumbai: 22nd September 2017. Siddharth Roy Kapur was unanimously re-elected as President of the Film & Television Producers Guild of India Ltd. (“Guild”) at the first meeting of its newly constituted Guild Council of Management which was held immediately after the 63rd Annual General Meeting held in Mumbai on 22nd September 2017.

The existing Management team helmed by Siddharth Roy Kapur has also been reelected with Vice Presidents Vijay Singh and Apoorva Mehta continuing to hold charge of Films wing & Manish Goswami and Srishti Arya taking care of Television wing of the Guild. Ashim Samanta has also been reelected as Treasurer of the Guild. Kulmeet Makkar will continue to manage the affairs of the Film & Television Producers Guild of India Ltd. as its Chief Executive Officer.

In a landmark development at the Annual General Meeting, Guild members approved the renaming of The Film & Television Producers Guild of India as Producers Guild of India in order to embrace and encompass all forms and mediums of modern technology driven content including New Media & Digital in the Guild fold and thus rebranding the Guild as a more generic identity representing producers spread all over the entertainment spectrum.

President Siddharth Roy Kapur stated …… “Today the Guild has decided to widen its mandate by opening its membership to content creators across all audio-visual platforms - film, television and digital. This will ensure that as the premier association representing producers across India, the Guild is completely in step with changing times and inclusive of all creators of content, regardless of which platform they are producing for." Rajan Shahi, Sunjoy Wadhwa and Asitkumarr Modi have been elected to the Guild Council of Management. The members of the newly elected Council of Management of Guild are as under:-

1. Siddharth Roy Kapur (President)

2. Vijay Singh (Vice President)

3. Apoorva Mehta (Vice President)

4. Manish Goswami (Vice President)

5. Srishti Arya (Vice President)

6. Ashim Samanta (Treasurer)

7. Mukesh Bhatt

8. Dheeraj Kumar

9. Ramesh Sippy

10. Manmohan Shetty

11. Ashutosh Gowariker

12. Rakesh Roshan

13. Farhan Akhtar

14. Ekta Kapoor

15. Vishal Bhardwaj

16. Sushilkumar Agrawal

17. Hiren Gada

18. Subhash Ghai

19. Sunil Lulla

20. Rajkumar Hirani

21. Rajan Shahi

22. Sunjoy Wadhwa

23. Asitkumarr Modi

24. Kiran Shantaram (Permanent Member)

25. Randhir Kapoor (Permanent Member)

26. Amit Khanna (Permanent Member)

27. Kamalkumar Barjatya (Member Emeritus)

28. Rajkumar Kohli (Co-opted Member)

Mumbai: 18th August, 2017. The Film and Television Producers Guild of India Ltd. (“Guild”) is represented by Ms. Srishti Arya Behl in her capacity as its Vice President/office bearer.The Film and Television production sector in Mumbai has been working harmoniously for the past many years with workers/affiliates of Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE) on the basis of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between Producers’ Bodies and FWICE.

As some of you may be aware that the last MoU signed by both the sides was challenged by one of the Producers in Competition Commission of India (CCI) questioning a host of clauses including authority of the Producer’s bodies to decide commercial terms and working conditions with FWICE on behalf of Producers and most importantly the clause of ‘Member to Member Working’. We understand that the final verdict of CCI is expected soon which should give us some clarity and direction as to how we as a producer body can intervene to decide amiable working terms and conditions between Producer members and FWICE.

The Producers and FWICE members have been working together as a close-knit family and there is no reason to believe that the contentious issues cannot be resolved across the table in a friendly environment. Having said that, we also strongly state that strike is not the prudent solution to any problem as each issue can be debated and decided through negotiations. We are happy that many other associations who either currently are or have been a part of FWICE such as Cine and Television Artists Association (CINTAA), Indian Film and Television Directors Association (IFTDA) and Western India Cinematographers Association (WICA) have not only opposed the strike but also expressed their displeasure over the unparliamentary language and shameful expressions used by the some of the FWICE members supporting the strike.

Guild therefore believes that stoppage of work not only complicates matter but more significantly leads to loss of business, credibility and above all jobs for thousands of workers. The better option has always been meeting each other in a cordial and peaceful atmosphere and resolving issues keeping in mind the larger welfare of the workers fraternity which depends on the survival of film and television industry.

Mumbai: 14th August, 2017. The Film and Television Producers Guild of India had filed a suit against the Federation of Western India Cine Employees ("FWICE") and its allied associations against their call for a strike in the Bombay High Court. We have got an interim order from the High Court of Bombay that FWICE and its members should not physically stop any member or non-member voluntarily willing to work with the Producers. The members of "FWICE" are also directed not to indulge in causing a commotion or violence or agitation near the shooting sites.

Siddharth Roy Kapur, President of the Film and Television Producers Guild of India stated "We are pleased with this very fair verdict. It is unfortunate, but unavoidable, that we have had to exercise our legal options to ensure the safety and security of those film and television workers who are gladly willing to continue working, despite the arbitrary strike call given by the FWICE. We believe that there should be complete freedom between producers and workers to decide on commercial terms which work best for both sides. We as industry bodies should rather focus our energies on facilitating healthy and safe working conditions for all those employed on production units, rather than on imposing arbitrary decisions which hamper the well being of the industry and ultimately impact the very workers that we are supposed to protect".

Mumbai: 5th July, 2017. The decision of the Tamil Nadu government to levy Local Bodies Entertainment Tax (‘LBET’) over and above GST is a huge setback for the film industry. Effective July 1, the film industry is liable to GST in two rate slabs of 18% and 28% and now the industry is in complete dismay having learnt that the Tamil Nadu government has decided to impose ‘LBET’ of 30% making the overall tax rate of nearly 60% depending on the ticket pricing.

This move of double taxation by Tamil Nadu government will not only defeat the very purpose of introducing GST as a progressive ‘One Nation One Tax” regime but shall also make the industry commercially unviable leading to closure of cinema halls and loss of jobs.

The Film and Television Producers Guild of India makes a humble submission to the government of Tamil Nadu and all other state governments not to impose additional ‘LBET’ on films pertaining to any language over and above GST which is already in the highest slab of 28%.

Mumbai: 12th June 2017.Siddharth Roy Kapur, President of the Film and Television Producers Guild of India states that ‘The Indian film industry appreciates the move by the Hon’ble Finance Minister and the GST Council to consider the legitimate concerns of the industry, by revising the GST slab from 28% to 18% on cinema tickets priced below Rs.100/-. We continue to believe that the Indian film sector deserves to be taxed at a much lower rate than this, to encourage further investment, employment and growth, which in turn will only lead to higher tax revenues for the government and a more vibrant cultural outreach from India to the rest of the world.

He further added ‘We would also urge local bodies across all states to avoid imposing additional entertainment taxes at a local level, as unfortunately the film industry continues to be one of the only sectors that even under a "One Country, One Tax" GST regime, will still be subject to double taxation.’

Mumbai: 8th June 2017. The Film and Television Producers Guild of India continues to raise industry’s concerns on the adverse impact of the proposed GST rate of 28%. During the consultation meeting held by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting on 6th June 2017 chaired by the Union Minister of Information & Broadcasting Venkaiah Naidu with the film industry representatives on Cinematograph bill, the industry representatives deliberated on various challenges and opportunities for the film industry including recommendations of Shyam Benegal Committee for changes in the film certification process, taxation, scarcity of Cinema Screens and Piracy. The Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis was also present in the meeting.

On the GST rate issue, Fadnavis assured the film industry that the Maharashtra government will support Film Industry’s demand to lower the GST rate to 18% in the forthcoming GST Council meeting. At the same time, Maharashtra government also agreed to rationalize any additional entertainment tax likely to be imposed by the Local Bodies in the GST regime. The Maharashtra Chief Minister was extremely supportive on other long-standing issues such as Cinema licensing for new screens as well as modification of existing screens and announced that the licensing regime in the state will be removed and within 60 days the model law for cinema licensing will be introduced. In addition, the Single Window facilitation cell for shooting of films, Television programs and other audio-visual mediums in Maharashtra has been formed.

On the issue of piracy, both the central and state governments completely endorsed industry’s views on an immediate need to amend existing laws such as Information Technology, Cinematograph and Copyright Acts to protect the legitimate rights of copyright owners. The film industry complimented the chief minister on the formation of Maharashtra Intellectual Property Crime Unit (‘MIPCU’) as an initiative to enforce strong anti-piracy measures.

Siddharth Roy Kapur, President of the Film and Television Producers Guild of India states that ‘A rate of 18% GST or lower on cinema tickets would be in line with global taxation norms for the film sector and would go a long way in ensuring the long-term health of the industry. The film industry is identified as a priority sector in many countries around the world and therefore not only are the tax rates on films usually lower than the national average, but in many countries the industry is also provided numerous incentives to drive growth and employment in the sector. I do hope our Central and State governments will look at the Indian film industry through a similar lens in the future.' He further added ‘I am delighted by the response from both the Maharashtra State and the Central Government in the meeting, with both the Union Minister for Information & Broadcasting and the Chief Minister of Maharashtra strongly supporting and endorsing our suggestions on various matters of concern, from GST to piracy to screen density. We are hopeful that their actions in the future will provide the much-needed impetus the Indian film industry needs, to realize its vast untapped potential’.

Mumbai: 13th February 2017. The Film and Television Producers Guild of India and the film Industry at large is strongly arguing for a lower GST rate of 5% for making the film industry more lucrative for investments in the cinema infrastructure and technology. Over the years, the film industry has struggled to grow mainly due to multiple and heavy indirect taxes levied on the film sector in the past which resulted in stagnant growth in revenues and closure of Cinema Halls.

While providing justification for seeking a lower rate of 5% in the forthcoming GST regime to be levied on the film industry on the transfer of copyrights of cinematographic films and on cinema ticket sales, Industry believes that the high rate of taxes in the past have increased ticket prices which has caused the ripple effect on the film industry.

The Box office numbers itself explain that the growth of the film industry has stagnated owing to lesser collections due to higher ticket prices resulting from increase in tax rates. Only eight out of the approximately 230 Hindi films released in 2016 surpassed the glorified Rs 100 crore ($14.5 million) club in India, giving the industry only a total tally of around Rs 2,700 crore. It is alarming to note that the footfalls to cinema theatres for Hindi movies have reduced from 146 crore people in 2009 to 118 crs in 2016.

Statistics further reveal that 2016’s highest grossing film ‘Dangal’ which earned a staggering box office revenue of approximately Rs 385 crore was viewed by only 4% of the Indian population. Thus, the potential for growth and consumption of filmed entertainment in India is tremendous and a need is felt by the film industry to encourage and stimulate such growth.

Investment in Cinema infrastructure has hit a huge road block not only due to cinema licensing policies of most of the states but also falling footfalls and high infrastructure costs. Due to these issues, many single screen cinemas are shutting shop and the growth of multiplex Cinemas has been limited.

While ticket Box office collections have dropped and cinema footfalls have reduced, the ill effects of price rise has added fuel to the already existing fire of piracy. Bollywood experienced rampant piracy in 2016 where movies such as Dangal, Fan, Sultan, Airlift, Udta Punjab and other big ticket movies fell prey to the evil of piracy with movies releasing on online modes and DVDs before the print was available for viewing in Cinema Theatres.

Increase in ticket prices has encouraged the common man to explore the cheaper option and succumb to piracy without realising the damage and its ripple effects on the film industry. The closure of cinema halls and lack of investments in the Industry continue to be a major issue in India as compared to the United States of America and China. Following Statistics reveal a sorry picture of the Indian Cinema Industry;

* Source :United Nations Population Division, rounded-off

As we all know that the Indian audience loves watching films and industry strongly feels that by fixing a reasonable GST rate across the board and making cinema more affordable for film lovers we can secure the future of the film industry. It is thus the need of the hour to reduce the tax rates on film tickets and copyright transfers.

Siddharth Roy Kapur, President of the Film and Television Producers Guild of India states that “A rate of 5% GST on film tickets and copyright transfers will be in keeping with global taxation norms for the film sector and will go a long way in ensuring the long-term health of the industry. Due care should also be taken to ensure that the film industry does not suffer from an inverted duty structure as is the case under the current service tax legislation”. Mr. Roy Kapur further added “Discouraging local bodies from levying entertainment tax would be another positive step in supporting the growth of the film industry”.

Presently in the current indirect tax legislation all theatrical revenues are exempted from service tax and VAT (in majority of the states) whereas revenue from transfer of non-theatrical copyrights is taxable at 15% service tax and 6% VAT (in Maharashtra, earlier 4-5%) and the weighted average tax on revenue of Rs 100 from a movie (Theatrical + Non-theatrical) is approximately 6% to 7%.

Given that transfer of copyrights under the current legislation is taxed at 7% of the total revenue, continuing a lower rate of 5% under GST is justified. Lower tax rate would ensure greater compliances by the assessees. A lower tax rate would inter alia encourage the assessee to religiously collect and pay the tax to the credit of the Government without feeling the burden of the same.

Despite the effective lower rate of VAT and service tax, the film industry faces the wrath of high taxes due to state level entertainment tax which is levied on the ticket price at a punitive rate. The cascading effect of this punitive rate of entertainment tax trickles all the way to the producer level who ultimately bares its burden. Under GST, it is understood that admission to cinemas and transfer of copyrights in cinematographic films shall be subject to GST. Additionally, it is also understood that local body entertainment tax could be levied over and above the GST on the price of the ticket thereby enhancing the ticket price significantly vis a vis the current ticket price.

The film industry is identified as a priority sector in many countries and therefore not only the rate of taxes on movies in international tax legislations across the world including entertainment in the VAT or GST base are lower, the film industry is also provided incentives to promote the industry.

It is important to note that no international legislation promotes, levies or supports a supplementary tax on filmed entertainment except India. Hence, internationally, films are subjected to VAT/ GST at super reduced rates, reduced rates or standard rates. The table below captures the rate of VAT/ GST levied on films internationally.

Mumbai: 28th January 2017. The dastardly act of vandalism and assault which happened yesterday on the sets of filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s film ‘Padmavati’ at Jaipur is extremely unfortunate, deplorable and totally unacceptable to the Indian film industry. The Film & Television Producers Guild of India Ltd. (“Guild”) in unison with the entire film fraternity strongly condemns this despicable episode and expresses its absolute and unflinching support to Sanjay Leela Bhansali.

Guild President Siddharth Roy Kapur in no uncertain terms said “As President of The Film & Television Producers Guild of India and speaking on behalf of the entire film industry, I strongly condemn the acts of vandalism on the sets of Padmavati as a direct attack on freedom of expression in our democracy. The film industry has become the softest target for any fringe group looking for media attention, and we need the strongest possible intervention from the concerned authorities to end this and to end it now. We stand united and unflinching in our support of Sanjay Leela Bhansali, and urge the Government of India and the State Government of Rajasthan to take immediate steps to ensure the strongest possible punitive action is taken against these miscreants, so it serves as a deterrent in preventing the recurrence of such unacceptable events in the future”.

The distressing part is that this is not the first time that fringe elements have unilaterally taken the law into their own hands to disrupt shoots/film releases and cause tremendous financial losses to film producers. The film Jodhaa Akbar was also not permitted to release in Rajasthan by the same group despite censor certification.

It is a glaring paradox that on the one hand the Central Government, various State Governments along with the film fraternity has been leaving no stone unturned to universally project India as an attractive shooting locale and on the other hand such miscreants are resorting to hooliganism of the worst order to defeat the ‘Shoot in India’ endeavor. Such disparaging incidents not only discourage our film makers to shoot in India.

with them preferring to travel abroad for shoots, but also puts foreign producers on the alarm against prospective plans to shoot in Indian locales. The sordid story of these debilitating turn of events is that such misinformed individuals/organizations are not even realizing the structured and methodical manner in which the process of film making evolves at the shooting/release stage and further at the time of certification clearance from the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC).

The Guild makes a strong plea to the concerned ministries and authorities to promptly initiate stringent measures against these elements to send out a strong message to other misinformed individuals/bodies that such acts will not be tolerated in the future and thereby provide a timely deterrent against the repetition of these unacceptable incidents.

12th January 2017: TRAI was given jurisdiction over carriage issues in the television sector at the start of 2004. Since then it has issued a number of price controls, which included:

A price freeze across the entire industry in 2004 with a price cap of Rs. 5 per channel per subscriber in areas where addressable systems were not introduced; and More notably through the recent Draft Telecommunication (Broadcasting And Cable Services) (Eighth) (Addressable Systems) Tariff Order, 2016, which is likely to take effect from April 1, 2017. The current draft order prescribes maximum retail price caps for pay channels, by genre, [INR 10 (USD 0.15) for movie channels (a-la-carte), excluding taxes] and further caps channels into seven genres

“As India continues to develop its thriving creative industry, a transparent, market-based environment free from mandated tariffs, is essential to build investor confidence and to foster the creation of quality content benefiting India’s consumers and its economy,” said Siddharth Roy Kapur, President of the Film and Television Producers Guild of India.

“We believe that price controls should only be considered when the market lacks competition which harms consumers or where there is clear systemic market failure. It would be advantageous to abolish any restrictions on price and thereby encourage FDI investments in India-- as is the case in countries such as Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and South Korea, where the retail and wholesale rates are not subject to restrictions. A more economically efficient model would be to allow the market to determine prices while encouraging investment in quality content,” said Kulmeet Makkar, Chief Executive Officer of the Film and Television Producers Guild of India.

Vijay Singh, CEO, Fox Star Studios said, “Since the availability of content is not an issue in the context of the Indian market, restricting numbers/genres/mix tantamount to predetermination and therefore, pre-empts creativity. There can never be an exhaustive list of genres for governments to determine any mix and TRAI's intervention will have cataclysmic effect on the creative community as a whole as TRAI effectively has price capped creativity.”

“Under the Copyright Act, 1957, a content owner has the freedom to monetize copyright works and enter into contracts to monetize content in a manner he deems fit. However the price restrictions imposed by TRAI interferes with this basic freedom. It risks stifling creativity and may force smaller companies out of the market – resulting in less choice for consumers,” said Uday Singh, Managing Director, Motion Picture Dist. Association (India) Pvt. Ltd.

Sectoral regulations have seriously impeded the growth of the film sector. Despite active participation by global studios and broadcasters, investments in the sector have trickled down in the past few years. Indian studios and independent producers are also facing similar challenges. An open market environment can best guarantee that the film sector will not be distorted to the detriment of consumers, creators and providers.

Mumbai: 3rd January, 2017: As decided unanimously at the 62nd Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Guild on 24th September, 2016, President Elect Siddharth Roy Kapur has officially assumed charge as President of The Film and Television Producers Guild of India with effect from 1st January, 2017.

After taking charge as Guild President, Siddharth Roy Kapur said “It is a great privilege to have the opportunity to serve as President of The Film and Television Producers Guild of India, the leading body of active film and television producers in the country. During my term, I intend to build on the strong foundation laid by my predecessors, to further drive the growth and progress of our industry."

The office bearers of the Guild will be decided by the President in the forthcoming meeting of the Guild Council. The members of the Council of Management of Guild elected at the 62nd AGM are as under:

1. Siddharth Roy Kapur (President)

2. Mukesh Bhatt

3. Dheeraj Kumar

4. Manish Goswami

5. Vijay Singh

6. Ashim Samanta

7. Srishti Arya

8. Ramesh Sippy

9. Manmohan Shetty

10. Ashutosh Gowariker

11. Rakesh Roshan

12. Karan Johar

13. Farhan Akhtar

14. Ekta Kapoor

15. Vishal Bhardwaj

16. Sushilkumar Agrawal

17. Madhu Mantena

18. Hiren Gada

19. Sabbas Joseph

20. Subhash Ghai

21. Sunil Lulla

22. Rajkumar Hirani

23. Kiran Shantaram (Permanent Member)

24. Randhir Kapoor (Permanent Member)

25. Amit Khanna (Permanent Member)

26. Kamalkumar Barjatya (Member Emeritus)

27. Rajkumar Kohli (Co-opted Member)

Kulmeet Makkar will continue as the Chief Executive Officer.

‘Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’ to have a smooth release this Diwali: Mukesh Bhatt, President, Producers Guild post meeting with Hon’ble Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis and MNS Chief Raj Thackeray.

Mumbai : October 22, 2016: In what comes as a complete resolution to the ‘Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’ release speculation, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis presided over a meeting with the MNS Chief Raj Thackeray, the Producers Guild of India, Dharma Productions and Fox Star Studios and all parties agreed to ensure the safe and smooth release of the Diwali entertainer ‘Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’ across single screens and multiplexes.

"We had a constructive meeting with the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Maharashtra and the good news is that 'Ae Dil Hai Mushkil' will release across all single screens and multiplexes as per schedule on 28 October 2016," says Mukesh Bhatt.

"I have confirmed to the Hon’ble Chief Minister that the Producer's Guild has decided that going forward, we will not work with Pakistani artistes in the future. Karan Johar said that he will put a special slate saluting our soldiers before the start of the movie. It's a tribute from us to our soldiers," he further added.

Bhatt also revealed, "In addition, some of the producers volunteered to contribute to the Army Welfare Fund. We owe this to the Army."

He further says, "The meeting was called by the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Maharashtra and all the parties agreed that all films which are already in production with Pakistani artistes will be allowed to release smoothly. All parties agreed that the nation should celebrate a Happy Diwali and now ' Ae Dil Hai Mushkil ' will release on October 28 in a mood of Diwali celebration."

Produced by Dharma Productions and Fox Star Studios, the film stars Ranbir Kapoor, Anushka Sharma and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in lead roles.

Mumbai: 14th October 2016: The Film & Television Producers Guild of India Ltd. (“Guild”) expresses its unflinching support to the Central Government and its solidarity with the Armed Forces on their supreme sacrifice at URI and courage and valor displayed during the recent counter terrorism operations.

The Guild which represents most of the active Hindi film producers affirms its unequivocal backing to the Government on this important issue, and also draws the attention of the Government to the genuine concerns of all those film producers who have invested heavily in films featuring artistes from across the border, since there has been some discourse in the media recently with regard to certain threats to disrupt the release of these movies. There are many film producers who have either already shot their films or are in the process of completing their unfinished films prior to the escalation of hostilities with our neighbors, including Karan Johar’s soon to be released film ‘Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’ which has also been certified by the Central Board for Film Certification (CBFC). Similarly, there are many other films which are scheduled to be released in months ahead including ‘Dear Zindagi’ and ‘Raees’, which also feature artistes from across the border.

Mukesh Bhatt, President of the Film and Television Producers Guild of India stated that “The Guild in no uncertain terms confirms that the film industry stands in unison with the Government’s recent steps to counter terrorism and will naturally abide by any decision taken by the central government with regard to government’s future policy on issuance of work visa to foreign artistes; however, we would urge the government at the Centre as well as all the states to appreciate that the film producers who have already shot their films or are in the process of completing their unfinished films should not end up paying heavy price for no fault of theirs due to engaging the services of talent from across the border as these artistes were employed through proper legal channels prior to the recent escalation of hostilities”.. He further adds that “The Central Government has taken several steps in the past to foster cultural exchanges by inviting industry representatives to participate in the Government’s efforts to improve our relationship with Pakistan”.

Whilst reassuring the commitment of the Guild and Film industry to abide by the decisions of the Government and pledging its absolute support to the sacrosanct national interests, the Guild urges the Central and State Governments to not only ensure smooth release of such films including ‘Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’, as well as to guide the industry on the way forward with respect to the mechanism to be adopted in hiring or utilization of talent associated with our neighbors.

Mumbai: 26th September 2016: Siddharth Roy Kapur was unanimously elected as President of the Film & Television Producers Guild of India Ltd. (“Guild”) at the first meeting of its newly constituted Guild Council of Management which was held immediately after the 62nd Annual General Meeting on 24th September 2016. He will assume responsibility as the President of the Guild with effect from 1st January 2017.

The current President Mukesh Bhatt and the management team will be holding charge until 31st December 2016. Subsequently, the new Management team will be constituted effective 1st January, 2017 at the time of new President Siddharth Roy Kapur assuming office. Kulmeet Makkar will continue to manage the affairs of the Film & Television Producers Guild of India Ltd. as its Chief Executive Officer.

The incumbent President Mukesh Bhatt said “Throughout the past 4 years of my tenure as Guild President, the Management Team has embarked on the path of my illustrious predecessors and worked with devotion and passion on reinvigorating the image and goodwill of Guild and now it is time to move on and hand over the baton to the younger generation.”

The President-Elect Siddharth Roy Kapur said “In his four years as Guild President, Mukeshji has served the industry tirelessly, with tremendous passion and commitment. I look forward to building on what he has accomplished, and working alongside my colleagues to help address the challenges and build on the opportunities we have before us as an industry”.

Subhash Ghai, Sunil Lulla and Rajkumar Hirani have been inducted into the Guild Council of Management. The members of the elected Council of Management of Guild are as under:-

1. Siddharth Roy Kapur (President-Elect)

2. Mukesh Bhatt

3. Dheeraj Kumar

4. Manish Goswami

5. Vijay Singh

6. Ashim Samanta

7. Srishti Arya

8. Ramesh Sippy

9. Manmohan Shetty

10. Ashutosh Gowariker

11. Rakesh Roshan

12. Karan Johar

13. Farhan Akhtar

14. Ekta Kapoor

15. Vishal Bhardwaj

16. Sushilkumar Agrawal

17. Madhu Mantena

18. Hiren Gada

19. Sabbas Joseph

20. Subhash Ghai

21. Sunil Lulla

22. Rajkumar Hirani

23. Kiran Shantaram (Permanent Member)

24. Randhir Kapoor (Permanent Member)

25. Amit Khanna (Permanent Member)

26. Kamalkumar Barjatya (Member Emeritus)

27. Rajkumar Kohli (Co-opted Member)

Mumbai, 16th September 2015: Mukesh Bhatt was unanimously re-elected as President of The Film & Television Producers Guild of India Ltd. (“Guild”) at the first meeting of its newly constituted Guild Council of Management which was held immediately after the 61st Annual General Meeting on 11th September,2015 at Hotel Sun-n-Sand, Juhu, Mumbai.

The other office bearers re-elected as part of the Guild Management Team are Dheeraj Kumar, Siddharth Roy Kapur, Manish Goswami and Vijay Singh as Vice Presidents, Ashim Samanta and Srishti Arya as Treasurers.

Kulmeet Makkar will continue to manage the affairs of the Film & Television Producers Guild of India Ltd. as its Chief Executive Officer.

In his opening speech at the Guild Annual General Meeting - President Shri Mukesh Bhatt, in the course of apprising the members about various initiatives of Guild during last year, also said …… “Throughout the past 3 years, our Management Team has embarked on the path of my illustrious predecessors and worked with dedication, determination and intensity on embellishing & brightening the image and reputation of Guild and to this end I would like to emphasize on the contribution of Kulmeet Makkar, Guild CEO, who has devoted his energies to reinvigorate and revitalize the approach and modus operandi of Guild. We continue to engage with State & Central Governments over several issues concerning the film & television industry. There have been many fresh initiatives undertaken by Guild such as waiver of all the charges pertaining to Publicity clearance and Titles registration to make the system more transparent and provide enhanced value to the members, release of first edition of the Film incentive Guide which provides processes and incentives in detail to benefit Indian producers for shooting in 12 countries apart from other reports such as Make in Maharashtra, Film tourism, GST way forward…… ”

Vishal Bhardwaj has been once again inducted into the Guild Council of Management. The other members of the newly elected Council of Management of Guild:-

1. Mukesh Bhatt (President)

2. Dheeraj Kumar (Vice President)

3. Siddharth Roy Kapur (Vice President)

3. Siddharth Roy Kapur (Vice President)

4. Manish Goswami (Vice President)

5. Vijay Singh (Vice President)

6. Ashim Samanta (Treasurer)

7. Srishti Arya (Treasurer)

8. Ramesh Sippy

9. Manmohan Shetty

10. Ashutosh Gowariker

11. Rakesh Roshan

12. Karan Johar

13. Farhan Akhtar

14. Ekta Kapoor

15. Vishal Bhardwaj

16. Sushilkumar Agrawal

17. Ratan Jain

18. N P Singh

19. Madhu Mantena

20. Hiren Gada

21. Sabbas Joseph

22. Kiran Shantaram (Permanent Member)

23. Randhir Kapoor (Permanent Member)

24. Amit Khanna (Permanent Member)

25. Kamalkumar Barjatya (Member Emeritus)

26. Rajkumar Kohli (Co-opted Member)

In addition to the existing three Special Invitees Subhash Ghai, Ritesh Sidhwani, Guneet Monga, eight more Guild members/representatives - Prem Sagar, Asitkumarr Modi, Sneha Rajani, Ajit Andhare, Sameer Nair, Apoorva Mehta, Aashish Singh and Vipul D. Shah were nominated as Special Invitees.

Mumbai, 14th August 2015:The Guild Council of Management has decided to waive off fees for registration of titles with immediate effect from Guild members. This decision has been made in order to provide services such as Publicity Clearance as well as Title registration to the members at no cost.The Guild has always endeavored to create a congenial and transparent working with our members. This decision has therefore been made to become more members friendly and accessible. Initiatives like title registration waiver can go a long way in ensuring a simpler, transparent and seamless working environment.

Mukesh Bhatt, President of The Film and Television Producers Guild of India stated that Guild members are the pillars on which the strong foundations of Guild have been laid –Assets of Guild which need to be recognized and rewarded, hence we feel that it is our responsibility to payback our members in a reasonable manner and consequently we have arrived at this decision to withdraw title registration fees which constitute a decent source of our revenue stream as a token of appreciation to our members’ support at all times.

Film and Television Producers Guild of India urges the Government to subsume local bodies entertainment tax fully under GST.

Mumbai, 12th May 2015 Lok Sabha on 6 May 2015 passed The Constitution (One Hundred Amendment) Bill, 2014 that gives effect to change in taxing powers of the State and Central Governments and making suitable changes to introduce Goods and Services Tax in India. The Bill seeks to subsume almost all indirect taxes charged by Central and State Governments. Exclusive power of the Central government to tax all services and manufacture of goods (except for excise duty on tobacco products, petroleum and alcohol for human consumption) has been deleted. Similarly, exclusive power to tax on sale and purchase of goods, all types of entry of goods, luxury, betting and gambling and entertainment tax (unless levied and collected by local bodies) except for tax on purchase and sale of alcohol for human consumption.

It is evident that most of the taxes will be subsumed in GST with one notable exception of the entertainment tax levied and collected by local bodies. The Bill allows the entertainment tax to be levied and collected by local bodies (i.e., panchayats and municipalities). The tax would be over and above the State and Centre GST on entertainment.

The local body entry tax (such as Octroi) estimated at Rs 14,000 crore per annum for the State of Maharashtra alone have been fully subsumed in GST. However, local body entertainment tax estimated at Rs 25 – 30 crores across India is kept out of GST allowing such local bodies to charge an incremental entertainment tax over and above GST.

President of the Film Guild, Mukesh Bhatt stated that “Internationally, films are considered as arts and cultural ambassadors and offered many incentives and financial support governments around the world. Indian films have contributed significantly in uniting the nation and taken Indian culture to international audience. Films should be treated at par with other services and not be singled out for the additional entertainment tax. In fact, the Government implies to treat entertainment at par with sin goods such as Alcohol and tobacco which are also kept out of GST”.

The EY report titled “Subsume entertainment tax in GST” states that Supplementary levies in addition to GST are warranted only for products that are harmful to health such as tobacco and alcohol or those that are detrimental for the environment (petroleum). There are no negative externalities associated with entertainment. It must be considered at par with other goods and services and should be given a fair tax treatment.

Ritesh Sidhwani, Producer and Co-founder of Excel Entertainment Pvt Ltd further added that “Besides, levy of this tax at the local body level will neither be simple nor yield much revenue. India has a total of 640 districts. Even if a small percentage of the local bodies seek to impose the tax, compliance and enforcement will be a nightmare.”

The EY report states that for local governments, the most suitable tax base is considered to be real property, which is immobile and can readily be identified within the boundaries of a given jurisdiction. Entertainment, being mobile and available in diverse forms, is not a suitable base for municipal/local taxation. The situs of entertainment is important for municipal/local bodies that collect tax if the source of entertainment is within the boundaries of their jurisdiction. With the advent of modern technology, movies and films can be watched not just in cinema halls or through cable or DTH connections, but also on computers, laptops and media players. Entertainment signals could be beamed from a satellite and received/consumed anywhere within the footprint of the signals, which could be the whole of the country or the continent. At any given time, it would be difficult to determine whether the film is being watched within the limits of the municipal/local body.

Karan Johar, film producer at Dharma Productions Pvt Ltd stated that “It will be almost impossible for the film producers to estimate the tax revenues with any precision. This appears to be against the government policy of facilitating ‘ease of doing business’ and ‘tax certainty’ in India.” It is believed that even though the tax would be charged and collected from the theaters, film producers are impacted by it since the producers generally enter into revenue sharing arrangements with the theaters, which are based on revenues net of any taxes applied on the admissions. They would need to know the taxes applied by each of the local bodies to determine their share in the revenue pool.

Kulmeet Makkar, Chief Executive Officer - Film Guild mentioned that “The Film Guild has on numerous occasions reached out to the Central Government, Empowered committee of State Finance Minister, Parliamentary Standing Committee. However, this has not been addressed in the bill.”

The Constitutional amendment bill shall now be tabled in Rajya Sabha. The Film Guild urges the Government all entertainment taxes, whether levied by the States or local bodies, be subsumed in the GST.

The Government can implement this proposal by making amendment to The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty Second Amendment) Bill, 2014 by deleting entry 62 to the List II (State List) to the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution of India.

Mumbai, 18th December 2014. The Film & Television Producers Guild of India Ltd. (“Guild”), a premier entertainment trade association, comprising the who’s who of the Indian film & television industry, intends to promote and encourage the ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ initiative launched on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti - 2nd October, 2014 by the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi all over the country with a remarkable endeavor to make India clean within the next 5 years.

Though the task is herculean and requires unflinching endorsement from all quarters, the Council of Management of “Guild” believes that the Film industry has always essayed an important role in contributing to such noble causes and as industry representative, the “Guild” should take the forefront in pioneering this wonderful enterprise of nation building through cleanliness ushered by the Hon’ble Prime Minister.

In due accordance, the council of management of “Guild” has unanimously passed a resolution to urge it’s members to discontinue the ages old practice to display or affix all kind of film posters including 6 sheeters in the public places, walls and government structures across the country. The “Guild” believes that for the cleanliness drive to achieve genuine success from an industry perspective, its members should avoid putting up film posters anywhere in public domain across Indian cities.

The “Guild” has urged its member to henceforth refrain from displaying all kind of film posters of their forthcoming films on the public walls and government structures all over the country in our objective to lend a helping hand for this endeavor from the film industry’s point of view.

Mukesh Bhatt, President of the Film and Television Producers Guild of India states “ I would like to set an example myself by ensuring that the posters of my forthcoming film “Khamoshiyan – Silences have secrets” due for release on 23rd January 2015 are not displayed on the public walls and Government structures. I truly believe that this practice will not only act as a strong deterrent against showcasing film posters in public places but also set an ideal example for the society and general public to emulate the film industry’s path and thereby play an important role in joining hands with the Prime Minister and Central Government to make India clean and thus pay a fitting tribute to the Father of Nation Mahatma Gandhi on his 150th birth anniversary - 2nd October, 2019 – who always advocated the principle ‘Cleanliness is Godliness’ throughout the great journey of his life”.

The “Guild” as always will work towards in ensuring the film industry’s unflinching support to the Union Government in this laudable initiative & we are hopeful that this is just a stepping stone for exemplary success in the times to come.

Mumbai, 31st October 2014: As Maharashtra is witnessing a drastic change in its political scenario with a new government forming today, the Film and Television Producers Guild of India Ltd, which is a leading body that aims to promote the development of the Indian Film and Television Industry in India, would like to take this opportunity to highlight some of the key issues and challenges faced by the industry, which are not only detrimental to the growth of the industry but will result in an inevitable breakdown of the entire film industry.

The entertainment capital of India - Mumbai has been the centre of the Indian entertainment industry since its inception and this industry provides employment directly or indirectly to almost 5 million people in the country. However, serious implications caused by the various archaic laws and heavy burden of taxation on the Hindi film sector has stunted the growth of this industry and made several stalwarts displeased with the system.

The high taxes imposed on the Hindi Film Industry in the state, like the Entertainment Tax on films, applicability of VAT on Television production business, Stamp Duty and the to keep local bodies taxes out of the proposed GST, have cast a dark spell for the ‘Film Guild’. The absence of single window mechanism has resulted in systematic harassment and malpractices over the years, and has increased costs for the producers thereby significantly discouraging producers from shooting in the state. In addition to this, the lack of adequate cinema halls in the state (much lower than southern states) has hampered the growth of the film industry and directly resulted in increase in piracy and loss of revenues to the government, as well as the industry.

Speaking about the various concerns weighing down the industry, Mukesh Bhatt, President of the Film and Television Producers Guild of India said, “Maharashtra has always been the home for the Hindi film industry. Sadly, we have been made to feel like an orphan in our own home state. Leave aside any support; we are penalized for making films in a language which does not belong to any other state in the country including Maharashtra. The impartial treatment given to Hindi film industry in our own state in the past is obvious when it comes to the high tax structure, archaic laws and multiple complications restricting growth of the film industry in the state”.

However, showcasing hope in the new chapter in the history of the politics in Maharashtra, he added, “We are confident that the new BJP government in Maharashtra will address these pending issues and help the film industry achieve newer heights”.

Mumbai has been the dream city for a lot of Bollywood actors, who have carved their space in the history of cinema and in the hearts of their fans over the years. It’s time that the entertainment industry is rewarded for all these years of service to the people and required changes be made in the system, as they hinge their hope on the newly elected BJP government.

Shri Mukesh Bhatt was unanimously re-elected as President of The Film & Television Producers Guild of India Ltd. (“Guild”) at the first meeting of its newly constituted Guild Council of Management which was held immediately after the 60th Annual General Meeting on 27th August, 2014 at Hotel Sun-n-Sand, Juhu, Mumbai.

The other office bearers re-elected as part of Shri Bhatt’s Management Team are Shri Dheeraj Kumar & Shri Siddharth Roy Kapur as Vice Presidents & Shri Ashim Samanta as Treasurer. Additionally, Shri Manish Goswami & Shri Vijay Singh, CEO, Fox Star Studios were elected as Vice Presidents and Ms. Shrishti Arya was elected as Treasurer.

Veteran Guild member Shri Kamalkumar Barjatya was honored by the Council on being accorded the privilege as a Member Emeritus of the Council of Management. Shri Madhu Mantena, Shri Sabbas Joseph & Shri Hiren Gada were elected as new members in the Guild Council of Management for the year 2014-15 whilst Ms. Guneet Monga was nominated by the Council as a Special Invitee.

Kulmeet Makkar will continue to manage the affairs of the Film & Television Producers Guild of India Ltd. as its Chief Executive Officer.

In his opening speech at the Guild Annual General Meeting - President Shri Mukesh Bhatt, in the course of apprising the members about various initiatives of Guild during last 12 months, also said …… “Since my anointment as President 2 years back, we have continued to tread on the holy grail of strengthening ‘Brand Guild’ and in all modesty, the process towards achieving this end has yielded providential results for the Guild. In this endeavor, I would like to mention the name of Kulmeet Makkar, Guild CEO, who has undertaken concerted efforts to give a professional and refined outlook to the Guild in the eyes of all stakeholders. By and large, the Guild has grown in stature over the last 2 years, with the kind of recognition it has been getting from all quarters such as Central & State Governments, foreign delegates & emissaries and friendly trade bodies. This year, with the new Government in place, we hope to establish channels of communication with the new order in our endeavor to further boost the healthy relationship we enjoyed with the previous regime which will positively lead to exponential growth of the film industry in the next 5 years.”

The following are the members of the newly elected Council of Management of Guild:-

1. Mukesh Bhatt (President)

2. Dheeraj Kumar (Vice President)

3. Siddharth Roy Kapur (Vice President)

3. Siddharth Roy Kapur (Vice President)

4. Manish Goswami (Vice President)

5. Vijay Singh (Vice President)

6. Ashim Samanta (Treasurer)

7. Srishti Arya (Treasurer)

8. Ramesh Sippy

9. Manmohan Shetty

10. Ashutosh Gowariker

11. Rakesh Roshan

12. Karan Johar

13. Farhan Akhtar

14. Ekta Kapoor

15. Vishal Bhardwaj

16. Sushilkumar Agrawal

17. Ratan Jain

18. N P Singh

19. Madhu Mantena

20. Hiren Gada

21. Sabbas Joseph

22. Kiran Shantaram (Permanent Member)

23. Randhir Kapoor (Permanent Member)

24. Amit Khanna (Permanent Member)

25. Kamalkumar Barjatya (Member Emeritus)

26. Rajkumar Kohli (Co-opted Member)