New Delhi: The Rajya Sabha Secretariat issued a notice to former RSTV CEO Gurdeep Sappal, who currently heads the news channel Swaraj Express, regarding the production of the movie Raag Desh during his time in office.
Sappal resigned as RSTV CEO in August 2017, soon after M. Venkaiah Naidu was sworn in as Vice-President of India, replacing Hamid Ansari. Sappal, considered close to the Congress, launched Swaraj Express in November 2018. Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh’s wife Amrita Rai is the managing editor of the channel.
Last year, the RS Secretariat set up a one-member inquiry committee headed by its secretary, Dr P.P.K. Ramacharyulu, to look into the expenditure incurred by RSTV in making the film in 2017.
“The committee, in a report submitted recently to the RS secretary general Desh Deepak Verma, said RSTV went beyond its mandate in making the movie,” a senior government official familiar with the matter told ThePrint.
The Ramacharyulu committee also reviewed the functioning of RSTV since its inception in 2011. Based on the report, the RS Secretariat issued a notice to Sappal last week, seeking an explanation.
Speaking to ThePrint, Sappal termed the inquiry as “bogus” and said making films was very much “within the mandate” of RSTV. The movie, he said, had been approved by the then-RS secretary general, Shumsher K. Sherrif.
Questions over Raag Desh
Raag Desh, directed by filmmaker Tigmanshu Dhulia, was produced by Sappal. It was based on the trials of soldiers of the Indian National Army at the Red Fort during World War II.
Released in 2017, Raag Desh opened to a lacklustre response at the box office. Former President Pranab Mukherjee had organised a screening of the movie at the Rashtrapati Bhavan auditorium.
“The Ramacharyulu commitee report said the decision to make the movie lacked financial prudence and caused loss to the public exchequer,” said another official.
The first official quoted above said RSTV had hired Dhulia to direct the film at a cost of Rs 13 crore. “The one-member committee in its report said there was no transparency in selecting Dhulia as the director,” the official said.
The second official added: “A private company, UFO Moviez, was engaged for distribution and marketing of the movie. The company was paid Rs 6 lakh.”
The contract signed by RSTV with the distribution company had a revenue-sharing clause, in the ratio of 70:30. “But till date, RSTV has not got any money. The CAG has also flagged the inconsistencies in RSTV’s decision to make the movie,” the second official added.
RSTV has so far released 80 per cent of the money for the movie. It has held back the remaining amount.
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‘Bogus’ inquiry
Deny the charges, Sappal told ThePrint, “How do I come into the picture? The CEO of RSTV has financial powers only for up to five lakh rupees. The CEO is only an implementing authority, not the approving authority… Let them prove otherwise, I also want to see how they can prove such a wild charge.”
Sappal said Raag Desh was not the only RSTV production. “We made a series Samvidhan, the film Raag Desh, a serial Raag Desh, and approved and completed background work for a film on ‘Sardar Patel & Integration of India’, one full length and seven short films on the ‘War History of India’. These films were approved by the secretary general, but he left the production to the present regime, as the term of Hamid Ansari was expiring,” said Sappal.
He said Raag Desh was released in the last weeks of his tenure, while the serial was completed after he left RSTV.
“The onus was on RSTV to market the project, and the accountability for causing the loss to the exchequer lies with the present management of RSTV,” he said.
He added that neither the movie nor the serial were his “personal” projects.
“They were projects of RSTV. It was the duty of the current management of RSTV to market the serial and the film. They did nothing to release them on TV channels, platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime etc. They made no effort to sell them for in-flight viewing. I don’t know if they took a formal decision on file to kill the projects and not monetise them, or they just put them in the cold storage out of some strange animosity towards me,” he said.
Sappal said the inquiry has been done without any complaint whatsoever.
“The RS Secretariat unofficially leaks false information, trying to confuse CAG’s audit queries with CAG objections. As far as my information goes, and also substantiated by an RTI reply, all audit queries till the date of initiating inquiry were successfully answered by RSTV to the satisfaction of the CAG,” he said, adding that the movie was audited three times.
The RSTV model, Sappal said, has now been adopted by Lok Sabha TV as well.
“Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan commissioned a series Surajya Sanhita. It has been directed by Chandra Prakash Dwivedi, who was selected on identical grounds as we selected Shyam Benegal for Samvidhan and Tigmanshu Dhulia for Raag Desh. I have been told that the budget sanctioned by LSTV was nearly Rs 15 crore,” he said.
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These made by public monies, must be placed for Public use freely on You Tube for public use.
It is not highlighting Chokidar mahachor Narendra Modi so there must be the inquiry.If the film had highlighted Chokidar mahachor & his Chokidar Chor Bharatiya Jumla Party then there should have no enquiry.Jai Chokidar mahachor hai.