TOI : RTI comes to the rescue of harried film units : Feb 27, 2007
RTI comes to the rescue of harried film units
Viju B I TNN
Mumbai: Film units in the city can now look forward to shooting in public
places without being harassed by the police and civic agencies which demand
a bribe every time a shoot occurs in their jurisdiction.
An online film portal filed a query under the Right to InformationAct,
asking for details of the procedures involved in acquiring permission for
shooting in public places in Mumbai.
The Mumbai police commissionerate gave a detailed reply to the query,
stating that a production unit can ask for the services of the police force
on paying a fixed fee.
“The services of an additional commissioner of police can be called upon
by paying Rs 1,071 for a period of 12 hours. If the unit wants to use the
service of a police inspector they need to pay Rs 900, and if they want to
utilise the services of a constable they need to pay just Rs 371,” the RTI
response said.
Film producers and unit officials say that till date, they were not
aware of their rights. “Instead we ended up paying lakhs of rupees to
various government agencies, including the RTO, police department, and civic
officials though we already had the permission for the shoot,” Dilip
Bhanushali, director of film corporation.com, who filed the RTI query said.
The portal, which is into production of films and commercials, also assists
film-makers in selecting locales and studios.
Bhanushali knows many cases where film shoots came to a complete
standstill after production managers had heated arguments with the local
cops. In some cases, the cops even arrested the production manager. “We then
have to pay massive bribes to get the shoot re-started,” Bhanushali said.
Recently, a production company had to pay around Rs 2.5 lakh, while
producing a commercial, to various government agencies even though they had
taken prior permission for shooting the film. “Even the road transport
officials extorted money from them and they had to pay up as they had an
urgent deadline to meet,” Bhanushali said.
Armed with the information, the film portal is now planning to approach
the anti-corruption bureau if the officials still harass them for money.
“The portal has used the RTI Act to good effect. More and more people should
come forward to use the act to resolve their problems,” RTI activist
Shailesh Gandhi said.
viju.balanarayanan@timesgroup.com
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