Veteran filmmaker Subhash Ghai, who spent New Year's Day in Agra visiting the Taj Mahal and meeting his family friends, says greed and a penchant to make quick money are the guiding principles of filmmaking nowadays.

He said that his "films like Vidhaata, Ram Lakhan or Karz were not only entertaining and artistically crafted with catchy music but also conveyed messages”. 

"They were Indian. Today the commercial concerns and the overall approach to filmmaking had changed", he said in a media interaction.

On the recent controversy related to Aamir Khan-starrer PK, he said "tax exemption should have come right in the beginning. Now there was a political angle to this move".

The film has been exempted from entertainment tax in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and this added fuel to the fire. Activists of the Bajrang Dal, Hindu Jagran Manch and Vishwa Hindu Parishad held demonstrations at several places, burnt posters of the film and shouted slogans to stop the screening of the film as they feel it hurst the sentiments of Hindus.

Ghai also had some suggestions for movie industry.

"There is a need to make films on Prem Chand's literary heritage. (Also) acting could be introduced as a course in universities," he suggested.

Ghai's films like Pardes and Vidhaata have been extensively shot in Agra and now it is said that sequel to his 1989 released film Ram Lakhan could be shot in Agra.

(Source: IANS)