Why 'Metro In Dino' director Anurag Basu thinks Donald Trump's 100% tariff on foreign films can be a 'blessing in disguise': 'If we reciprocate...'

Producers and distributors say it is too early to assess the exact implication of US president Donald Trump’s announcement of a 100 per cent tariff on foreign-made films but if it applies to Indian films releasing in America, then the ticket rates will go up.

On Monday, Trump reiterated his comments in May by announcing that he will be imposing a “100 per cent tariff” on any and all movies that are “made outside of the United States”.

Asked about Trump’s latest announcement, Shibasish Sarkar, president of the Producers Guild of India, said he is taking a wait and watch approach to the matter as there is no clarity about how the tariffs on movies will be implemented.

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“We should wait till he comes with a circular on the same. It seems that he is focused on the US films which are going outside of the US for production and he wants to raise the tariff when they come to home country for exhibition. The objective is to bring local employment, investment. In such a scenario, a non-US film, releasing in the US, I don’t foresee any major impact,” Sarkar told PTI.

However, if the tariff applies to all films, both American and foreign, being released in the US market, then Indian films could feel the impact.

“In that case, the producer will pass on the ticket prices to the consumer, then the footfalls will come down. For Indian films it is not of much significance because a substantial amount of business comes from domestic ticket sales. Among overseas markets, the US is big, but it constitutes only 6 to 7 per cent of overall revenue for Hindi films.

“For Tamil and Telugu films, the US is a significant market. If there’s a tariff of 100 per cent, then there will be an impact of 5 to 6 per cent for South films, and for Hindi films it will be 3 to 4 per cent at the revenue level,” he said.

Leading distributor Rajesh Thadani also said that there was not much clarity about Trump’s proposed tariff.

“If the 100 per cent tariff is applicable to Indian films and companies, then it will definitely have some impact on us. The US is a significant market for Indian films, especially South language movies like ‘Baahubali’, ‘KGF’, and others. If the tariff is on Indian films being shown there, then the ticket rates might go up and fewer people will go to theatres. It is yet to be known whether the streaming platforms like Netflix and others come under this tariff or not,” he said.

Exhibitor-distributor Akshay Rathi said North America is a significant market for Indian films, particularly for Telugu films.

“The movie fraternity can continue to release their films in North America. It is in the interest of the theatres over there to make sure they price the ticket sensibly, where the 100 per cent tariff works out to be reasonable so that enough people turn up at cinemas. I’m sure they will find a solution to make sure that the consumption of movies is not hampered because of the tariff.

“However, it is important to wait for the fine print of the policy to be out because then that will lead to more clarity,” he said.

Ramesh Taurani of Tips Films highlighted the uncertainty and lack of clarity in many of Trump’s statements.

“It’s too early to comment on this, he keeps saying something new daily. We should wait and watch for things to get sorted,” he said.

In his post on Truth Social, Trump said the movie making business has been stolen from the United States of America by other countries.

“… Just like stealing ‘candy from a baby.’” He said the new tariff would be imposed “on any and all movies that are made outside of the United States”. Trump, however, did not specify when the tariff would take effect.

It also remained unclear whether the levy would cover films on streaming platforms like Netflix and Prime Video in addition to theatrical releases, or how it would be calculated.

In May, the US president said he would talk to Hollywood executives about his plan and to begin the process of imposing the levy because America’s film industry was dying “a very fast death”.

What Anurag Basu said

“Trump’s tariff on Indian movies could be a blessing in disguise, if we reciprocate on Hollywood releases, higher ticket prices for foreign blockbusters here would drive audiences to domestic films, more than offsetting any US losses. Think of it as box-office karma with better exchange rates,” the director told Zoom.

The filmmaker told NDTV- “I have no idea what he means when he says ‘made outside of the United States’ because every second Hollywood film is shot outside of the USA, the VFX is executed outside of the USA. And tariff on what? The ticket price? His statement is too broad to be understood properly. Firstly, let’s see if he remembers this tomorrow when he wakes up.”

With added inputs from agencies