Bollywood plans to fight against service tax imposed on actors

Bollywood is in the process to stop working so as to hold protests against 12.36 percent service tax imposed on film and television actors by the government. Mukesh Bhatt,President of the Film and Television Producers Guild of India, told IANS, "We are in a process of deciding that if we have to call for a shut down. It's not our choice, we are compelled to do so. We are having a meeting soon and then we will decide about it." He added,"It saddens me that in the 100th year of Indian cinema, we should be celebrating, but how can one celebrate with this burden and the insensitivity of the government (towards film fraternity)."

Producer Ramesh Taurani ofAjab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahaniand forthcoming thrillerRace 2fame, also joined Bhatt and confirmed his support towards theprotest,"Tomorrow (Wednesday) all the producers will have a meeting where we will have to find a solution to the problem. It's an additional burden on us and we can't handle this anymore.” Bollywood is all set to follow the Southern film industry as they went on hunger-strike on January 7 over the same issue and Tamil superstar Rajinikanth too had joined the demonstrations.

The service tax, which is supposed to be effective from this month itself, will be charged along with income tax and it will surely burn a hole in the actors’ and producers’ pockets. The entire Indian film industry will be affected by the tax and if the strike takes place which is slated next month, Bollywood intends to release none of the movies during this shut-down period.