Like Papanasam, director Chimbudeven’s Puli, which released on October 1, did not qualify for a 30% tax exemption despite receiving a ‘U’ certificate. The news will come as a blow to producers PT Selvakumar and Shibu Thameens. This is Puli’s second run-in this week with the income tax department, after last minute raids on October 1 led to the morning shows being cancelled. The tax exemption crew listed a number of reasons for their decision to deny the film a tax exemption.
A ‘U’ certificate is mandatory (along with a title in Tamil) but does not automatically qualify a film for a tax exemption. Exemption is only given to films which are seen as promoting Tamil culture, and which do not contain excessive violence or obscenity. Here’s a list of the tax exemption crew’s reasons:
Recommended
- Certain scenes in Puli promote superstitious beliefs, which is against Tamil culture.
- Actresses have been shown in a glamourous way in the songs. (Almost every review spoke about Shruti Haasan’s glamour in the ‘Yendi Yendi’ song)
- Violence has been shown in an open manner. For example, a child’s throat has been slit and the killing scenes have been picturised in a gory fashion.
- A majority of the film’s scenes show no respect for living beings (human or animal).
- Puli glorifies violence and in the initial stages, it also sports some double entendre dialogues.
Puli is a fantasy adventure film starring Vijay, Shruti Haasan, Hansika, Sudeep, Sridevi, Robo Shankar, Thambi Ramaiah, Vidyullekha Raman, and Imman Annachi. The tax exemption committee includes C Palani, MC Thiyagarajan, Dr KM Sekar, TI Maharajan, AI Raghavan, and MN Rajam.