One of the producers of Amitabh Bachchan-starrer Jhund, Savita Raj Hiremath has said that she is “perplexed” why their film was not made tax-free. She pointed out how the film, about a retired sports teacher who pioneered a slum soccer movement, not only witnessed positive audience reaction but also had a subject that’s “crucial to our country’s growth”.

A week after Jhund, filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri’s The Kashmir Files, based on the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley in the 1990s, opened in cinemas. The film garnered support from the central government, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The film, featuring actors Anupam Kher, Mithun Chakraborty and Pallavi Joshi, was also declared tax-free in states like Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Karnataka, Tripura and Goa.

On Friday, Hiremath took to Facebook and wrote: “I recently watched The Kashmir Files... it is a story that needed to be told... But as the producer of Jhund, I am perplexed... So, I want to find out the criterion on which the government selects a film to support it so strongly by making it tax free, endorsing it through social media and asking offices to showcase the film or give a half-day holiday to its employees. After all, Jhund also has a subject that’s crucial to our country’s growth. Jhund is not just talking about the disparity between caste and economic disparity but also shows a way to make the lower strata of society find their success story.”