File photo: Chinese director Zhang Yimou poses during a photo call for his film 'The Flowers of War' at the 62nd edition of the Berlinale, International Film Festival in Berlin.
Renowned Chinese film director Zhang Yimou has been slapped with a whopping USD 1.23 million fine for violating the country's controversial one-child policy by having three children.
Zhang was fined 7.48 million yuan (about USD 1.23 million) for violating China's family planning policy, the family planning bureau of Binhu District of Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province, said.
The bureau sent Zhang a letter demanding collection of the "social maintenance fee," state-run Xinhua news agency quoted the district's officials as saying.
Zhang and his wife Chen Ting were fined after he acknowledged last month that they had parented two sons and a daughter.
Zhang, one of the "fifth generation" of Chinese filmmakers, made his debut in 1987 with Red Sorghum and has won numerous awards worldwide.
He was the chief director of the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympic Games.
China has initiated steps to relax its one-child policy recently after stringently implementing it for three decades during which the government claims to have reduced the birth of over 400 million.
However, a host of reasons, mainly the steady rise of old population which has touched about 200 million as well as prospects of labour shortages made the government to rethink the policy and permitted one child couples to have a second child.