THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala State Film Development Corporation (KSFDC) has denied the allegation that it played villain in the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) decision to close down its regional office in Thiruvananthapuram.The NFDC office was functioning in the headquarters of KSFDC at Kalabhavan buildings at Vazhuthacaud here, after an agreement between both the film development corporations on January 1, 1995, to generate an average annual business of Rs 50 lakh. KSFDC had decided to increase the rent levied on premises used by NFDC from the existing Rs 3 per square feet to Rs 40 for 483 square feet office with retrospective effect from 2000.The arrears would come to around Rs 7 lakh. KSFDC had sent a letter on January 31, 2012, to NFDC as they offered to pay only Rs 10 per square feet and to vacate the premise within one month of receipt of the letter.Though a letter from the NFDC Deputy General Manager D Ramakrishnan cites the notice issued by KSFDC as the reason, a similar decision was taken by the Mumbai headquarters three years back but shelved following the intervention of Sasi Tharoor MP."They were paying a paltry sum of Rs 1451 a month. Hence we asked for a hike in the rent to Rs 40 per square feet, while the market rate is nearly Rs 60 per square feet. Moreover, NFDC can avail of space in the CPWD building as most other central departments did,’’ Sabu Cherian, KSFDC chairman said.An official statement from NFDC states that during 2008-09, the office did a business of Rs 54, 69,814 (till October) while it was Rs 66,40,975 in 2006-07. NFDC had taken the decision to shift its regional office after the Board of Directors meeting on February 4, 2012, at Chennai.An official letter from Deputy General Manger N K Vyas says that all the business activities pertaining to all of south India be carried out by the Chennai regional office.The office was entrusted with acquisition of films and supplying the same to Doordarshan, sub- titling works of Malayalam films, coordinating the work relating to pension of cine workers, review of proposals for making films with assistance from NFDC.
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