BHOPAL: The BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh, became on Monday afternoon, the first state in the country, to declare the recently released Hindi movie, The Sabarmati Report tax-free.
The significant announcement was made by the central Indian state’s CM Dr Mohan Yadav in Bhopal.
“The events of the past have been presented factually in the film. The film is being made tax-free so that more and more people can watch it.”
“I too will watch the movie, which will also be watched by my ministers, MLAs and MPs. I hope this movie brings out the true reality of the black chapter of the past, which has largely been distorted due to vote bank politics,” Yadav added.
Importantly, the MP CM made the key announcement just a few hours before he flew to Gujarat to hold talks with the state’s CM and ministers over a host of issues.
The announcement was made just a day after PM Narendra Modi (who was the Gujarat CM during the time of the horrific incident and subsequent riots), while referring to The Sabarmati Report movie, had stated on social media, "It’s good that this truth is coming out. A fake narrative can persist only for a limited period of time.”
Adding to the PM’s praise for the movie, Union Home Minister Amit Shah asserted on social media, “No matter how hard a powerful ecosystem tries, it cannot keep the truth hidden in darkness forever.”
Released last week, the Vikrant Massey and Raashii Khanna-starrer movie is based on the 2002 Godhra train burning tragedy, in which 59 people, mostly Hindu pilgrims and karsevaks returning from a ceremony in Ayodhya, died in a fire.
This is the second movie within eight months to have been declared tax-free by the MP CM Dr Mohan Yadav. Prior to it, in March, the CM had declared Yami Gautam-starrer Article 370 tax-free in the central Indian state. Article 370 focused on the rise of terrorism in Kashmir and the government’s fight against it, including the abrogation of Article 370 by the Narendra Modi government on August 5, 2019, ending the special status given to Jammu and Kashmir.
The government, however, didn’t give a similar tax benefit to the Pankaj Tripathi-starrer movie Mai Atal Hoon, which was a biopic on former PM and BJP patriarch Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Importantly Vajpayee’s Indore-based niece Mala Tiwari had written to PM Narendra Modi in January, to make the movie Mai Atal Hoon tax-free for infusing the spirit of nationalism among youths.
Before it, in May 2023, then CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan had declared the Hindi movie, The Kerala Story tax-free and also watched the movie with the film’s cast and crew in Bhopal.
In June 2022, Chouhan had declared Akshay Kumar-starrer Samrat Prithviraj tax-free, just two months after granting similar benefits to Anupam Kher-starrer, The Kashmir Files.
But it’s not just BJP regimes that have declared movies tax-free in MP, as even the 15-months-old Kamal Nath-led Congress regime, had declared Deepika Padukone-starrer Chhapaak (based on the real-life struggle of an acid attack survivor) and Taapsee Pannu-starrer Thappad (which dealt with issue of domestic violence) tax-free in the state.