Vivek Agnihotri slams Donald Trump's 100% tariff on movies produced outside US, calls it an ‘absurdity': ‘India's struggling film industry will collapse'
Hours after US President Donald Trump announced a 100 per cent tariff on all movies 'produced in foreign lands', controversial Indian filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri has stepped forward criticising the US government's move, claiming that it would destroy the already ailing Indian cinema. While announcing his decision, Trump claimed that the American movie industry was 'dying a very fast death' as a result of the 'concerted effort by other nations'. He also dubbed it a 'national security threat'.
Maintaining that Trump's 100 per cent movie tariff threatens Indian cinema, Agnihotri noted that this would wreck the film industry here completely. He wrote on X (formerly Twitter), 'It is a disastrous move. If this absurdity prevails, India's struggling film industry will collapse entirely, with no one to save it.'
He further urged the bigwigs of Indian cinema to address the issue immediately and take a stand, rather than wasting time on 'self-glorification' before it's too late. 'Indian film leaders must wake up, unite, and fight this threat instead of chasing paparazzi and self-glorification,' the filmmaker, known for helming controversial movies such as The Kashmir Files (2022) and The Vaccine War (2023), added.
Taking to Truth Social on Sunday, Donald Trump wrote: 'The movie industry in America is dying a very fast death. Other countries are offering all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United States. Hollywood, and many other areas within the USA, are being devastated. This is a concerted effort by other nations and, therefore, a national security threat. It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda! Therefore, I am authorising the Department of Commerce and the United States Trade Representative, to immediately begin the process of instituting a 100% tariff on any and all movies coming into our country that are produced in foreign lands. We want movies made in America, again!'
According to news agency Reuters, it remains uncertain whether the tariffs would cover films released on streaming platforms in addition to those shown in theatres, or how the tariffs would be calculated, whether based on production costs or box office earnings.
Donald Trump's latest move comes months after he appointed veteran actors Jon Voight, Sylvester Stallone and Mel Gibson as special ambassadors to Hollywood. At the time of their appointment, he had written on social media that their duty was to bring Hollywood back 'bigger, better and stronger than ever before'.
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