NEW DELHI: Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Rathore today said that the government was rigorously working towards providing a seamless work environment for the film industry by establishing a single window clearance mechanism.
Inaugurating the India Pavilion at the Cannes International Film Festival in France today, he said a centre of excellence for gaming and visual effects had been announced. The government would do its best to be an infrastructure partner and would like to have faculty coming from the industry itself and looks forward to more faculty exchanges.
Rathore said, “India had already signed coproduction agreements with a slew of countries. In the last one year, five co-productions had been undertaken with France alone. We need to take these partnerships to the next level now.”
He said the film industry is an important part of campaigns like ‘Make in India’ and ‘Skill India’ given its tremendous potential towards job creation.
The session also saw unveiling of the 46th IFFI 2015 regulations and ‘India Film Guide’ by the Minister.
The India Film Guide is a comprehensive booklet with information on policy initiatives by the government pertaining to film sector, the listing of Indian companies at Cannes Film Market, Indian Films at Cannes and contacts of important people in the business of filmmaking.
The session was attended by Indian Ambassador to France Mohan Kumar, Bobby Bedi, Nandita Das, Karnataka Information and Public Relations Minister Roshan Baig, I&B ministry joint secretary (films) K Sanjay Murthy and Film Federation of India former president Ravi Kottarakara.
Bedi in his welcome address said, “India’s presence at Cannes had increased tremendously over the past decade and we have seen an increase in representation in terms of quantity and an improvement in the quality of content as well.”
Kumar added that the aim should be to get Indian films in the most important category of films at Cannes. He added that over the next two to three years he would strive to work on that. The quality of films from India had been rich in content and quality.
Kottarakara felt that India has on offer some of the best shooting locations. “There has been a tremendous change in the Indian film landscape and the sector is definitely going to grow by leaps and bounds. We should try to experiment more to have a wider global acceptability. Also, India’s linguistic cinema which includes films in Tamil, Malayalam, Bengali, Marathi, Bhojpuri are as good as mainstream Bollywood films and should get an equal opportunity to be showcased,” he said.
Talking about the much-debated issue of censorship in India, Das said, “As we mature, it is important to promote freedom of expression rather than curtailing voices.”
On his behalf, Baig suggested that it will be great if the regional film industry is showcased as a part of the delegations to some of the major international film festivals.
Murthy added that over the next few days,he hoped to learn from various film commissions and carry back new partnerships and learning experiences.
