Bollywood all set to cash in on 26/11 Mumbai tragedy

Mumbai, Dec 18: Ram Gopal Varma`s visit to the terror ravaged Taj Mahal Hotel and Tower spiralled into a controversy, but despite that filmmakers have gone ahead and registered about 30 titles to make movies on the incident that claimed many innocent lives.

"26 Taj", "Operation 5 Star Mumbai" and "Bird`s Point of View: Taj Terror" are some of the titles that filmmakers have registered with the Indian Motion Picture Producers` Association (IMPPA) and Association of Motion Picture and Television Programme Producers (AMPTPP). Bollywood producer-director B Subhash, who has registered two titles for movies based on the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, said that irrespective of criticisms from some quarters, he would "go ahead in making the movies, though not immediately". The two titles Subhash has registered with the IMPPA are "Taj Terror" and "Bird`s Point of View: Taj Terror". "As a filmmaker, my objective is to capture a contemporary event on celluloid, not to cash in on the tragic incident that claimed many innocent lives, apart from inflicting a grievous wound on the Indian psyche. Obviously, my intention is not to glorify the terrorists who laid siege to Mumbai for sixty hours amidst nail-biting suspense," Subhash said. Subhash, who had earlier made the Mithun Chakraborty-starrer hit film "Disco-Dancer" in 1983, was among the nearly two dozen odd filmmakers who rushed to register titles for their forthcoming ventures based on the Mumbai terror strike even as the city was on tenterhooks. Echoing the same, Varma was quoted as saying: "As a filmmaker, I would see a potential in any incident which is of such large magnitude, by the sheer complexity of it." The IMPPA secretary, Anil Nagrath, confirmed that Tornado Films, headed by Aakash Sehgal, has registered as many as five titles for movies to be made on the terror that struck Mumbai Nov 26. They are: "26 Taj", "Taj 26", "Taj To Oberoi", "The Taj Encounter" and "48 Hours at Taj". Asked if the association checks the credentials of producers when they come to register titles for movies, Nagrath said: "We don`t need to do that because we ensure that when they apply for membership. So, the members are free to register movie titles. But we take care that the titles applied for are not vulgar or otherwise objectionable." Apart from these, there are other little-known banners like Red Butterfly Films Ltd., Saaj Productions, Z`s Films International, Om Shiv Films Creations and Shivsai Pictures that have registered titles like "Mission Taj", "Operation 5 Star Mumbai", "26/11 Mumbai Under Terror", "Nariman House", "26/11 @ Mumbai Operation" and "Fidayeen". Ever since 26/11, about 30 titles have been registered for movies with IMPPA and AMPTPP, Bollywood`s two associations of producers that register movie titles. These associations have their own separate title registration committees. They clear the titles after checking that there are no similar titles already registered or the titles applied for do not constitute similar-sounding words to those which have already been registered. It takes a minimum of 40 days to get a title registered against a production banner or a producer. The associations charge Rs.250 to get a title registered. The charge is Rs.500 if the title applied for is in two parts, like "Daag - The Fire", , for example. The production banners or producers forfeit the titles if they do not make movies with the titles already registered against their names within a period of three years. IANS