Mumbai: Development of the audio-visual sector requires industry-friendly policies, collaboration, and regular interaction between the government and industry stakeholders.
On Monday, a meeting in Mumbai was organised by the National Film Development Corp. where acclaimed filmmakers and industry professionals marked their presence, namely, Maddock Films founder Dinesh Vijan, Dharma Productions CEO Apoorva Mehta, Ayan Mukerji, R. Balki, Abundantia CEO Vikram Malhotra, Amazon Prime Video’s Gaurav Gandhi and Aparna Purohit, Netflix’s Monica Shergill, PEN India chairman Jayanti Lal Gada, Balaji Motion Pictures CEO Bhavini Sheth, Producers Guild of India president Shibasish Sarkar, Nitin Tej Ahuja CEO Producers Guild of India, and producers Mahaveer Jain & Madhu Mantena.
The deliberations centred around the strategic initiatives taken by the government to unleash the potential of the media and entertainment industries. The I&B ministry’s efforts at easing filming in India through the Film Facilitation Office and the onboarding of Invest India to expand its outreach to the domestic and international industry were highlighted.
The recently launched incentive scheme for international productions and official co-productions was discussed in detail, including the benefits it would bring to content creation in India. The industry was urged to leverage the FFO ecosystem and their suggestions on the incentives were duly noted.
The government’s efforts to make the forthcoming 53rd edition of the International Film Festival of India a success were emphasised, along with the opportunities being created for the industry. Feedback was sought on the amendments made in the Draft Cinematograph (Amendment) Bill, 2021. The feedback received from the industry participants was positive and they unanimously accepted the proposed amendments.
The stakeholders were also apprised of the ministry’s recognition of the industry's concern towards theatre density in India and the consequent development of a single window ecosystem and a model law for the ease of permission for construction of screens/theatres was in progress. The attention of the industry was drawn to many other interventions being made by the Ministry in the audio-visual sector.
I&B secretary Apurva Chandra summed up the discussion as fruitful and said, "The engagement with industry served as a perfect opportunity to apprise the various stakeholders of the efforts being made by the ministry to give an impetus to the film industry. The response from the participants was encouraging and we have urged them to leverage these various platforms to support our endeavour to make India a global content hub."
