Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], May 5 : Filmmaker Vikram Bhatt has weighed in on US President Donald Trump's recent announcement of a 100 per cent tariff on all films produced outside the United States, calling it a "knee-jerk reaction" by the US government, as this imposition includes many things that are not in the "interests" of America and its filmmakers.
While speaking with ANI, Vikram Bhatt said that American films whose story demands foreign location shooting tend to be impacted more by the introduction of the film tariffs by the US government.
"Those American films with a foreign shooting, whose subject is World War I, I don't know what will happen to them because this is a general diktat. The demand of the story is that you are making a film of Antarctica. So, how will you make that in the US? So, I think these problems are more for them," said Vikram Bhatt.
As for Indian films, the filmmaker believes that tariff imposition will have a low impact on Hindi cinema because most Indian movies don't tend to be released in the US market.
"Where our (Indian films) question is, anyway, very few films go to America and the UK. Similarly, the overseas market is not for medium to low budget films. And after doing this, I feel that only very big films will be able to go there. Because anyway, the price of the exhibition is very high there. I mean, the price of the theatre is high, the price of the ticket is high. The audience is not coming anyway. And if you double the price of the ticket, or double the tax, then I don't think other films will be able to sustain there," said Vikram Bhatt.
The filmmaker also shared his bewilderment about the possible impact of the movie tariffs imposed by the US government on Indian films.
"I don't understand how this applies to us. Because we don't shoot in America anyway. So, what is the point of tariffing our films? If we shoot there, then you will show this. But we are Indians, we make Indian films. Why will we shoot there? So, I feel that this is a knee-jerk reaction. And there will be a little discussion on this, there will be a little thought. And after that, I feel that their State Department will make a proper kind of documentation. After that, we will see how much it affects us. I mean, there are a lot of things in this that are not in America's interest," said Vikram Bhatt.
He continued, "But the story is of Bombay, so how can I shoot in Los Angeles? So, there is no clarity in all these things yet. Correct. It will come in the coming days, then we will understand it better."
US President Donald Trump has announced that he has directed the Department of Commerce and the US Trade Representative to immediately start the process of imposing a 100 per cent tariff on all movies coming into the US that are produced in other nations.
He said that the movie industry in the US is "dying" a very fast death and added that other nations were offering incentives to draw the American filmmakers and studios away from the US and termed it a "national threat."