ABSTRACT
The National Film Development Corporation, which stems from the amalgamation of several existing agencies, has a variety of roles. One of them, when it was founded in 1980, was to develop the network of cinemas in India. It thus financed the creation of about a hundred screens in fifty states, thanks to soft loans and subsidies to private developers. The heads of German studios and the technicians working for them did not protest against the misuse of the tax-shelter system, as they were happy to be working, regardless of the nationality of the films. The situation is similar in the Czech Republic and Romania, for example, where policies encouraging filming in these countries focused more on giving work to the Prague and Bucharest studios than on actually stimulating national film production. Legislators could be wise, but discreet as to their real intentions. Finally, legislators could also be disputed by voters themselves about the actual meaning of their intentions.
