Fatima Sana Shaikh questions Mumbai's proposed 570% entertainment tax hike

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has reportedly proposed raising the local entertainment tax on air-conditioned cinema halls and multiplexes in Mumbai by 570 per cent. Few film personalities have spoken up so far, but Fatima Sana Shaikh has now weighed in. Asked about the plan at a recent public event, the Dangal actress reportedly asked who would watch films if the change goes through.

According to reports, Fatima said a trip to the theatre already costs somewhere between Rs 2,000 and Rs 3,000, with popcorn alone priced around Rs 1,000. She put tickets at roughly Rs 700 to Rs 800 apiece and said viewers now have to think ten times before booking a seat. In her view, hardly anyone is going to the cinema as it is, so making it dearer only pushes more people away.

She also called the move classist. Single screens are gone, she reportedly said, which has already left a large section of the audience feeling that a theatre is not a place for them. Films are the easiest way to reach people and to question morality or anything else, she argued, and pricing them out of reach takes that away from many.

Her comments have reportedly struck a chord online. Social media users called her response natural and accurate, with one warning that the rule would spell the end of cinema halls in Maharashtra and another saying that finally someone understood the reality.

Away from the tax debate, Fatima is currently on screen in Hunkkaar, the crime thriller streaming on JioHotstar that marks her long-form debut. She plays ACP Jasleen Singh, a cop investigating the rape of a minor student, Meenu, played by Aneet Padda, with Raghubir Yadav as the accused self-styled godman Baapji and Zoya Hussain as his complicit subordinate. Fatima has said she liked the realism of the part, noting that layered, non-stereotypical roles for women remain rare and that her officer is not the kind who shoots people down.

The series, which arrived after some delay, uses restrained performances, costumes and careful camera work to hold its grim tone, and Raghubir Yadav has admitted he was initially scared to take on a negative role so far from his Panchayat image. Fatima reportedly has another web series, Teen Kauwe, lined up next.