The local film Embun has yet to complete its run in the local cinema circuit but is already embroiled in controversies. One dissension is over a scene over the 'baring of the buttocks', another is over budgeting.

The producers or financiers — Finas — have proudly proclaimed to have spent RM3 million. This is RM1 million over-budget. How could a film go over-budget this much?

I understand that the director was paid only RM40,000, the lead actors only RM20,000 while the crew, RM6,000.

So, how did the film cost so much, one may ask?

There were only two or three scenes that needed a large number of extras to portray Japanese soldiers. The rest of the movie involved few actors.

Therefore, the RM3 million is certainly a huge amount for a Malaysian-made movie by any standards. But what one wants to see in a film of this size is whether the money is well-spent considering that it is public money.

Nobody gives a damn on the film's cost if it was produced with private funds.

Even if the film were to cost RM5 million, it is still worth it if it had looked like it had cost that much to produce. Embun 's problem was that it did not look like a RM3-million movie, at most it looked like it cost only RM1.5 million to produce.

Anyone who has been involved in the film business should be able to estimate the actual costs of the film.

Therefore, the Malaysian Film Producers' Association (PRM) official's comments on the need to investigate if the amount was not unnecessarily inflated deserves some consideration.

In this regard, its director, Erma Fatimah should not be hasty and use that oft-used reason of 'political persecution' as an excuse.

For one, she is no politician. At most, she is just a party canvasser who had gone to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah to canvass for votes in the by-elections. She didn't even give any public speeches.

I found her statement in a local English tabloid about how she had to grapple and deal with problems faced as a 'politician' to be laughable.

The reason why she was roped into Puteri Umno was because she had a 'high profile'. And Puteri Umno chief Azalina Othman, just badly wanted to enlist any Malay girl or woman of some prominence to make her exco line-up attractive. She even had the audacity to invite singers Erra Fazira and Siti Haliza other than Erma Fatimah into her fold.

However, all these artistes withdrew when they realised that being a Puteri Umno exco member was not to their benefit as many of their fans were 'reformasi' people.

Erma, however, managed to endear herself to Information Minister Khalil Yaakob who, from what I had gathered, personally recommended Erma to Finas as the director of its first movie.

Erma's claims that she became a 'politician' because she wanted to 'serve the people' must be taken with a pinch of salt. All she wanted to serve is probably herself.

She should help with the investigation into the film's purported RM3 million budget. A film director is not accountable for the budget as it is the responsibility of the supervising producer, in this case, Finas officials.

If the budget has been inflated unnecessarily, Erma should bring this matter up, since somebody else has abuse the funds for the production of this film.

I hope the PRM official will lodge a formal complaint with the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) so that this matter can be investigated.

Erma should not feel threatened unless she is party to whatsoever misdeeds that have been done. In fact, she should offer all her help to ACA.

The ACA should demand to see the budget breakdown of the film and ascertain that all the bills and receipts are in order. Finas should be held accountable for all the expenses because the money had come from the government which in reality is taxpayers' money.

If hanky-panky is found, action must be taken against the Finas officials.