Here Comes Jhollywood
‘Make in Jharkhand’ draws filmmakers to the state
Not many would have thought ‘Bollywood’ when Chief Minister Raghubar Das rolled out the red carpet in 2016 for any industry willing to ‘make in Jharkhand’. But the CM’s offer is all set for a fittingly filmi muhurat with Begum Jaan, filmmaker Mukesh Bhatt’s newest production, shot entirely in Raghubar’s backyard, and directed by Srijit Mukherjee, with Naseeruddin Shah and Vidya Balan in lead roles.
Slated for an April 14 release, the movie is eligible for a Rs 2 crore subsidy as per Jharkhand’s revamped 2015 state film policy. The state information and public relations department now offers single-window approvals, clear-cut timelines for filming permissions on location, a slew of subsidies including on hotel accommodations, and state security for film units.
It’s a major turnaround, for Jharkhand has been mostly shunned by filmmakers since 2005 when a Bengali TV film unit was attacked and looted in McCluskieganj, just 65 km from state capital Ranchi. Actor Rupa Ganguly, currently a BJP MP, was part of the unit, but escaped without injury.
Before the spurt in Naxal violence pushed the state off the filmmakers’ radar, Jharkhand’s rugged landscape had been a favourite of film legends like Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak. The state did intermittently see the return of Bollywood—Vikramaditya Motwane’s
Udaan (2010) and M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story, more recently—but it is inarguably the new film policy that has created the latest buzz. Since it was implemented, over a dozen features have been shot in the state.
Over a dozen feature films have been shot in the state after the new policy in 2015