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Journalism of Courage
MUMBAI, FEBRUARY 13: The managing director of the National Film Development Corporation, Ravi Gupta, has resigned. The resignation has caught the entire industry off guard, as till only recently, Gupta was busy making ambitious plans to turn NFDC into a entertainment powerhouse.
When contacted, Gupta said he had quit for “personal reasons” which he would not like to discuss. “I have offered to resign from NFDC,” was all he said.
Gupta, who quit the Indian Police Service 13 years ago to join the NFDC as General Manager, became its MD eight years ago. For the first time, NFDC was set to clock a record profit of Rs 5 crore for the current fiscal year.
The resignation, given in last Thursday, is lying with the Ministry for Information and Broadcasting. I & B officials said they are waiting for their Minister, S Jaipal Reddy, to return from poll campaigning in Andhra Pradesh on February 22 before they can take a decision on the matter.
The Ministry itself seemed unable to fathom Gupta’s unanticipatedmove. Last Thursday, Gupta sent a fax to the Information and Broadcasting Secretary C R Kamalanathan saying he was quitting for “personal reasons”.
He later explained that he was doing so because of a work-to-rule agitation by his staff to protest the management’s decision to stop overtime pay, I&B officials said. Gupta said he had told union members that if they did not call off the stir, he would resign. When they did not heed his call, he became “emotional” and resigned in a huff.
But ministry sources are taken aback by what they term “flimsy” grounds for resignation. Fuelling this suspicion is Gupta’s application for long leave, the maximum, in fact, that is due to a government servant, of 240 days.
Gupta has helmed NFDC’s most expensive movie yet, Jabbar Patel’s Dr Ambedkar, whose initial budget shot up from Rs 6 crore to Rs 8.22 crore.
It is expected to be released on April 1, Dr Ambedkar’s birthday.
