#Budget2019 Gives High Josh, Anti-camcording Provision To Be Introduced To Cinematography Act A sigh of relief for the entertainment industry that might help in the development of the movie business.

While Budget 2019 was the highlight of the day, it was Interim Finance Minister Piyush Goyal's speech that literally brought a smile to everyone's face.

On one hand, the budget brings relief to the middle-class by increasing the tax slab, on the other hand, this year also brings a sigh of relief for the entertainment industry.

Presenting the example of how Goyal enjoyed the latest released film 'Uri: The Surgical Strike', he went on to introduce the biggest stigma of piracy that the film industry has been battling for years now.

The Government has come up with Anti-camcording provision to Cinematography Act to fight piracy.

How's the Josh?

"Entertainment industry is a major employment generator. To promote entertainment industry - Single window clearance for ease of shooting films, available only to foreigners, is now going to be made available to Indian filmmakers as well. Regulatory provisions will rely more on self-declaration. We will also introduce anti-camcording provisions in the Cinematograph Act to control the menace of piracy," said Goyal.

Talking about the development Indian film director Onir said, "Any steps towards Anti piracy will be a huge step to help the industry from losing a huge amount of revenue every year. And single window clearance will make the process of permissions much smoother than the existing inconvenient practice of having to approach different departments."

This development comes as a big boost for the entertainment industry.

Initially, the single window clearance was only available for the foreign films. But looking at the field from creating jobs, Goyal extended the single window clearance for Indian films. This step comes as huge development for the movie sector considering for a long tenure, the industry has been struggling with the piracy hiccup.

"It's good to see that the new budget of 2019 focusses on some of the important issues of the Indian film industry that we have been facing for a long time now. For one, the single window clearance mechanism for Indian filmmakers is a welcoming step which was earlier available only for foreign films. This will help us reduce the time spent and avoid the trouble in seeking the various permissions required before beginning the shoot of any film. Secondly, the anti-cam-cording provision introduced to the Cinematography Act to fight piracy is a good step towards curbing film piracy in our country. We have been dealing with the issue of film piracy since a long time now with provisions made in the past too. However, the anti-camcording provision which prohibits the illegal filming and recording of films in theatres and otherwise should definitely help in controlling and eventually preventing film piracy," said filmmaker Omung Kumar.

"I guess for us (filmmakers in Gujarat) this sounds quite familiar because this policy was already applicable here but on a national level this will give out a big message to those who have been criticising the ease of making films in this country. This is certainly a welcome initiative. Piracy is a big threat and it has already shaken the entertainment industry. With every day news emerging about pirate groups hacking into a film, it is high time that government intervenes in favour of the industry and this announcement on such a big level is already a positive step. Looking forward to the joyous time to make films," said film director Abhishek Jain.

Calling it a great relief and an opening filmmaker and director Anish Shah said, "Great initiative! Involvement of many government bodies is essential for shoot permissions, if single body clearance is implemented it will be a big relief of filmmakers, turnaround time will be less and lesser possibility of corruption. This facility is currently available for foreign filmmakers as of now."

Previous Attempts

This automatically cuts down the time for the filmmakers before the project goes on the floor. The last year's budget had allocated INR 110 crore for cybersecurity projects, including the National Cyber Security Co-ordination Centre and others. However, nothing significant came out of it. But this news comes as a ray of hope, considering every movie within few days of its release gets leaked on the online portals hitting the film business below the belt.

This definitely increased the josh of the cabinet and Goyal very wisely even used the popular dialogue from the movie Uri 'How's the Josh'. Within nanoseconds, the whole session went into the transit where one could only hear everyone saying 'How's the josh-high'.

#Budget2019 does come up with various developments that work in favour of the people.