Kabir Khan Reacts to Donald Trump’s 100% Tariff Proposal on Foreign Films: “Too Broad to Be Understood”

Kabir Khan Responds to Donald Trump’s Proposed 100% Tariff on Foreign Films

Filmmaker Kabir Khan has reacted to US President Donald Trump’s proposal to impose a 100% tariff on films made outside the United States, questioning how such a policy would work in an increasingly global film industry.

Trump announced the proposal in September 2025, saying he would impose a 100% tariff on “any and all movies that are made outside of the United States.” His announcement argued that the American film industry had been adversely affected by overseas production.

Khan, speaking to NDTV, questioned the meaning and practical scope of the phrase “made outside of the United States.” He pointed out that Hollywood productions frequently shoot in countries outside the US and also use international visual-effects and production facilities.

Kabir Khan Questions How the Policy Would Work

Khan's response centred on the practical difficulties of defining where a film is actually “made.”

The filmmaker noted that many Hollywood productions shoot portions of their films internationally, while visual-effects work can also be carried out across different countries. His comments therefore raised a question about whether the proposed tariff would apply based on shooting location, post-production work, ownership of the production company or some other criterion.

He also questioned what exactly would be subject to the proposed tariff, asking whether it would apply to areas such as ticket prices or film distribution.

Khan described Trump's statement as being broad enough that its exact mechanism was difficult to understand from the announcement alone.

Trump’s Proposal Targets Overseas Film Production

Trump's September announcement followed an earlier warning in May 2025 concerning foreign-made films.

In his September statement, Trump argued that the US film industry was being weakened by production moving overseas and said the proposed tariff was intended to address that situation. International reporting subsequently noted that the announcement created uncertainty for film industries that depend on cross-border production and distribution.

The proposal is particularly significant because modern filmmaking often involves several countries. A movie may be financed in one country, shot in another, edited somewhere else and use visual-effects companies located across multiple territories.

Why the Proposal Raises Questions for Bollywood?

For the Indian film industry, the potential impact would be particularly relevant to movies released in the United States.

The US is an important overseas market for Indian cinema, particularly because of the large Indian diaspora. A significant additional cost associated with films entering the US market could potentially affect distributors, exhibitors and audiences, although the exact economic consequences would depend on how any eventual policy was structured and implemented.

Industry observers have also pointed out that the global nature of film production makes a simple distinction between “American” and “foreign” productions difficult to apply in practice.

The Difference Between a Proposal and an Implemented Tariff

It is important to distinguish Trump's announcement from an implemented tariff regime.

The September 2025 statement described an intended policy, but the precise mechanism for calculating and collecting a 100% tariff on foreign films was not established by the announcement itself. As of the reporting surrounding Khan's comments, questions remained about the definition of a qualifying foreign film and the point in the distribution chain at which such a charge would apply.

That distinction is important because a presidential announcement about a proposed measure does not by itself establish all of the administrative rules required to implement it.

Global Filmmaking Has Become Increasingly International

Kabir Khan's comments also highlight a broader reality of contemporary filmmaking.

Large-scale productions increasingly rely on international locations, crews, studios, visual-effects companies and post-production facilities. Indian cinema has similarly expanded its international production footprint, while Hollywood routinely shoots outside the United States.

This makes the definition of a film's country of origin more complicated than simply identifying where the cameras were used.

For filmmakers, distributors and exhibitors, the practical details of any future policy would therefore matter as much as the headline tariff percentage.

The Celebrity Hour Take

Kabir Khan's reaction draws attention to the implementation question behind Trump's proposal rather than simply the headline figure.

A 100% tariff sounds straightforward, but determining what qualifies as a foreign film becomes considerably more complicated when production, financing, filming and visual-effects work are spread across several countries.

For Indian cinema, the issue is also relevant because the US remains an important overseas market. However, the actual commercial impact cannot be determined without knowing the final structure, scope and enforcement mechanism of any tariff.

At this stage, Khan's comments are best understood as a response to the breadth of the proposal and the practical questions it raises for an internationally interconnected film business.

What Happens Next?

The key issue for the global film industry is whether the proposed tariff moves from a presidential announcement to a formally defined and enforceable policy.

Until the US administration establishes the specific rules, questions remain over which films would qualify, how the tariff would be calculated, who would pay it and how international co-productions would be treated.

For Bollywood and other international film industries distributing content in the US, those details would determine the proposal's actual commercial implications.

Sources & Verification

This report was prepared using Kabir Khan's publicly reported comments regarding Donald Trump's proposed 100% tariff on foreign-made films, alongside reporting on Trump's September 2025 announcement. Trump's stated proposal and Khan's response have been kept separate from independent analysis, and the article does not treat the proposed tariff as an already implemented policy.

Trump's earlier trade actions were also reviewed through official US government material; those documents concern broader goods-trade tariffs and do not establish the proposed 100% film tariff.