BHOPAL: Vicky Kaushal-starrer Hindi movie Chhaava has been declared tax free in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh.
The announcement was made by the state’s chief minister Dr Mohan Yadav, while addressing a gathering after unveiling the state archery academy in Jabalpur on Wednesday evening. The announcement assumed particular significance as it coincided with Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Jayanti.
“On the occasion of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s birth anniversary, I’m declaring that Hindi film Chhaava (based on his son Sambhaji Maharaj’s life) tax free in MP. The movie is being declared tax free to enable one and all to watch the movie, which depicts various aspects of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s son Sambhaji Maharaj’s life,” Yadav said.
The development happened three months after the same MP CM had in November 2025, declared the Vikrant Massey and Raashii Khanna-starrer movie, ‘The Sabarmati Report’ tax free in the state.
Based on the life of Sambhaji, the second ruler of the Maratha Empire, the movie, Chhaava (which also stars Rashmika Mandanna and Akshaye Khanna) is the third movie in 11 months to have been declared tax-free by the MP CM Dr Mohan Yadav.
Before declaring The Sabarmati Report tax-free in November 2024, the same CM had in March 2024 declared Yami Gautam-starrer Article 370 as 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 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 reportedly 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 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 as tax-free, just two months after granting similar benefits to Anupam Kher-starrer, The Kashmir Files.
But it’s not just BJP regimes which 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.