The President of the United States, Donald Trump, on Monday announced 100 per cent tariffs on movies made outside the country, in a move likely to impact the Indian film industry. “Our movie-making business has been stolen from the United States of America, by other Countries, just like stealing ‘candy from a baby’,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Monday. Trump said California has been particularly “hard hit” because of this, blaming democrat Gavin Newsom, the Governor of California, for this loss, calling him “weak and incompetent.”“To solve this long time, never ending problem, I will be imposing a 100 per cent Tariff on any and all movies that are made outside of the United States,” Trump added.
Tariff to affect Indian film industry
The decision is likely to have an adverse impact on the Indian film industry, as the US is one of the leading markets for Indian movies due to a large Indian diaspora in the country.India produces movies in several languages, which are popular among the diverse Indian diaspora in the US.According to a 2017 Forbes report, Indian language films have become big business in many places across the United States and Canada.Indian movies’ earnings are “commonly exceeding USD 8 million and occasionally topping USD 10 million,” the report added.Indian filmmakers and North American distributors and exhibitors alike cater well to this audience. At any given time, over 1,000 movie screens in the territory may be dedicated to showing Indian films, the report added.There has been a significant rise in the collections of Indian movies in the US since then, experts say.
