Phule biopic production delay: Auditor general raps Maharashtra govt

The state government has been pulled up by the Auditor General for the delay in the production of the biopic on social reformer Mahatma Jyotiba Phule, failure to

The state government has been pulled up by the Auditor General for the delay in the production of the biopic on social reformer Mahatma Jyotiba Phule, failure to recover the bank guarantee of ~60 lakh from the producer firm and violation of agreement terms.

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Auditor General’s Mumbai office, in its January 21 report, has raised objections in its audit over the state government’s failure to forfeit the bank guarantee given by the production house, Ghaziabad-based Eloquence Media Private Limited, for its failure to comply with the deadline.

The firm was expected to complete the film by September 2019, 11 months after the issuance of the work order on November 17, 2018 but failed to comply with even the first stage of appointing technicians and submitting the script. The AG office has stated that its a loss of ~60 lakh (the bank guarantee amount) to the government as it was valid till February 13, 2020.

In its reply to the Auditor General, the Directorate General of Information and Public Relations (DGIPR) stated that the firm has demanded a 9-month extension to complete the work and to pay the Goods and Services Tax on the amount of the production cost. “Since it was against the agreement, we have denied demands. We have already taken an year’s extension for the bank guarantee,” stated the reply.

Dilip Pandharpatte, director general of DGIPR said, “ The firm failed to complete the project in the stipulated time, but it was owing to the dispute over the GST. There was no loss to the government for not forfeiting the bank guarantee as we have extended it by a year. We will soon decide on whether to continue the firm or scrap the contract.”

Eloquence Media was formed in December 2016, just six months after the then chief minister Devendra Fadnavis asked DGIPR officials to revive the project.

There is no mention of the Ghaziabad-based firm’s experience or expertise in film productions, in the documents submitted to the government.

In the work order issued to the Eloquence on November 17, 2018, the DGIPR had warned it with a penalty of ~1 lakh per day on failure of compliance with the release date in September 2019. However, DGIPR neither imposed any penalty nor forfeited its bank guarantee, even over five months after the lapse of the deadline.

Eloquence director Aishwarya Yadav said that though the firm was new, the companies in consortium have huge experience. “We had complied all the deadlines including submission of the script and appointment of the technicians as part of the first two stages. The government was unable to release the amount it was supposed to after these stages. We are ready to complete the project even without the release of the funds if the government cooperates with us,” she added.