Earlier this week Ulaganayagan Kamal Haasan made headlines as he urged the people to report their sufferings due to corruption in Government, directly to the ministers of the state. In the same statement he had revealed that Tamil film industry stakeholders are being forced to pay bribe to get the 30% Entertainment tax exemption. until the introduction of GST.

In the year 2011, the then Chief Minister J.Jayalalitha had constituted a committee to watch Tamil films that fulfilll certain criteria and recommend whether or not to grant the Entertainment tax exemption for the film. The basic criteria for a film to be watched by this committee is that it should have acquired a U certificate from the Censor Board

Now filmmaker 'Achaarya' Ravi a former associate of Bala has followed Kamal's words and has written a Facebook post about how he was forced to pay bribe to obtain the Tax Exemption certificate from the Government.

The below is the crux of what Ravi has posted in Tamil:

"A team comprising of L.R.Eshwari, M.N.Rajan and A.L.Raghavan watched my film to grant Tax free status for it. The next day I received a phone call from a Minister's office. They wanted me to come and "talk". I refused. I did not get the Tax free certificate even after three months. So applied for the same through the RTI Act. Out of fear, the minister signed in the certificate. But I had to struggle a lot to get the Government order for the same. Finally, I received the copy by paying Rs.35,000 in the 9th floor of the State Secretariat."

Many ministers were asking Kamal Haasan for proof against corruption and also wanted him to make pointed allegations with proof rather than passing generic comments. That's why Kamal urged the people to send their stories. Now a filmmaker has made a specific allegation on the ministry which is responsible for granting the Entertainment Tax exemption status for Tamil films. We have to wait and see what the Government and the powerful ministers are going to do with this.