Income tax top gun gets reel

After 16 years in the Income-Tax Department, Additional Commissioner Sudhanshu Jha felt the need for a creative outlet and wrote and directed a feature film that bares all about how his office functions.

Serving Joint Commissioner of Customs (Air Intelligence Unit) Pankaja plays Shekhar, an IT commissioner, in Eik Dasttak, which was released on Thursday.

Said Jha, “Shooting was completed in about a year and a half. However, actual shooting took place only for 55 days. Keeping in mind work schedules, we shot only on Saturdays and Sundays, or weeknights.”

Jha initially shot an 80-minute feature on his handycam, using the same film cast, drawn from New Delhi’s theatre circuit.

“The cast, except for Vasundhara Das, were known to me for over a decade. After I shot the film on the handycam, it was privately circulated on compact discs, to gauge reactions. In March 2005, Harkrishna A Rai approached me and said he was keen to invest in producing the film if I directed it,” he said.

The film deals with four IT officials attached to a Mumbai unit that meticulously unravels ‘money-laundering’ activities of real estate developers, who use the diamond export business.

Political pressure results in investigations being stymied and protagonist ‘Kshitiz’ (played by Narein Jha) being transferred to a relatively obscure post in Ahmednagar, at the insistence of a business house.

Sudhanshu Jha said, “The film is positive. At a preview on March 16, several IT colleagues complimented me.”

Narein Jha said, “My character in the film was rather intense. I benefited from the firsthand knowledge director Sudhanshu Jha had about being an income-tax officer. The angst and hostility a person feels while being searched can easily turn to panic.

These emotions and situations can only be projected by a person who has been on the field.”

Agreeing with this, the director said, “In 16 years I have been witness to over 300 search and seizure operations. The film is about changing attitudes. Often, IT officers look upon anybody they inspect as crooks. This needs to change. That is what the film tries to bring out.”

When asked about permission required to make the film, Sudhanshu Jha explained,
“According to service conduct rules, government servants need to get out of the general rut and are in fact to be encouraged to pursue creative interests as long as these do not have a commercial angle. We do not have to intimate our department or seek permission as long as we adhere to this stipulation.”

He added, “For me, direction is a passion. I have not charged fees. The same goes for Pankaja, who participated in the film in her pursuit of acting.”

One will have to wait and watch how the IT Department reacts to the film, especially as it shows the Central Board for Direct Taxes (CBDT) chairperson acting under political duress and stalling investigations by officers.

Former cop YP Singh’s book Carnage by Angels, on the Indian Police Service (IPS), had raised the hackles of superiors, who he blamed for acting under the whims of ruling party politicians.