Despite incidents like ink-throwing and manhandling on set, MP’s reputation among filmmakers has endured.
The number of movies and web series shot in Madhya Pradesh in recent years has increased, starting with the well-liked Amazon Prime web series Panchayat, which is set in rural India, and continuing with blockbusters like Padman, Dabangg 3, and Stree. It is therefore no surprise that the state received the award for most hospitable state at the recent National Film Awards, which it has done twice since 2017.
The state’s intention when it established the tourism board in 2016 was to increase both tourism and movie production. “We have everything a filmmaker could dream of — wonderful scenery; a diverse, culturally rich atmosphere; a quality pool of actors; and all the newest technology,” Umakant Choudhary, Deputy Director (Adventure) of MP Tourism Board, said.
Madhya Pradesh hasn’t exactly had a flawless record, though. For the “wrong representation of Hindus,” Bajrang Dal activists attacked director Prakash Jha and his crew in 2021 when they were filming the online series Ashram 3 in Bhopal, India.
As a result of the same event, Prakash Jha Murdabad, Bobby Deol Murdabad, and “Jai Shri Ram” slogans were shouted and ink was thrown over Jha’s face.
A dispute over the Kaali movie poster and even a kissing scene in the web series A Suitable Boy followed statements made by the state’s home minister Narottam Mishra and the chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan calling for a ban on filmmaker Ali Abbas Zafar’s Amazon Prime Video web series Tandav in January 2021.
So, how do Bhopal-based directors and filmmakers perceive these “instances”? And what do they think about the state’s potential for film production?
“We Have Forgotten these Incidents Long Ago”
The Shivraj Singh Chouhan administration made a few further moves in 2019–20 to increase the profitability of film production for state producers.
With its one window approach, the film tourism policy made obtaining approvals easier than other procedures related to film production.
In accordance with the policy, a financial grant of 25% or up to Rs 2 crore may be given to feature films, 25% or up to Rs 1 crore may be given to TV series and web series, and a maximum of Rs 10 crore may be given to foreign films, TV series, and web series.
Apart from these, the policy introduced provisions for an additional financial grant of up to Rs 25 lakh for local artists of the state.
A line producer named Zaid Ali claims that Madhya Pradesh offers moviemakers a “pleasant climate to shoot films,” and he adds that he is not concerned about the “one-off cases because they haven’t hampered their job.”
