The first day of Film Bazaar 2017, which is under the banner of the International Film
Festival of India (IFFI), began on an eventful note. The Film Offices of Delhi,
Gujarat, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Lakshadweep, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra,
Rajasthan, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh collaborated with the Film Facilitation
Office (FFO) of the Ministry of I&B and the National Film Development
Corporation (NFDC) to showcase their locations to various filmmakers from India
and abroad. These offices provide a platform to showcase locations and
incentives that will benefit both the states and the filmmaker.
Integration of the states with the Co-production Market
The FFO on behalf of these states presented the various film
incentives offered by them to filmmakers including giving an overview of their
film policies to the participants of the Co-production Market. In doing so the
FFO, urged the filmmakers to participate in joint discussions with the states
so as to understand how they can integrate the locations offered by them into
their narratives and at the same time leverage the benefits offered for filming
in their jurisdiction. The fact that India has 12 international coproduction
treaties with Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Korea,
New Zealand, Poland, Spain and U.K and Northern Ireland, was also highlighted.
Structured meetings have been set up between the State Film Offices and the
filmmakers from the Co-Production Market over a period of four days, that is,
November 21 to 24, 2017 at Film Bazaar. It was impressed upon the filmmakers to
keep in mind the guidelines, rules and regulations while filming in a location.
Co-Production Market is a platform where selected projects with
South Asian themes are presented. Filmmakers get numerous avenues to find
financial and artistic support from Indian and International producers,
distributors, sales agents and financiers. This year 18 projects were presented
in the Coproduction market from India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Canada,
Afghanistan and Nepal.
Open Pitches by Uttar Pradesh and Telangana at the Knowledge
Series
Two interesting sessions with the official representatives of
Uttar Pradesh and Telangana were held at the Knowledge Series where they spoke
about the subsidies and benefits offered by them and how they plan to boost
filmmaking and make it a smooth affair. The discussion was done primarily with
the intent to make the filmmakers participating at the Film Bazaar aware of the
benefits and services offered by them.
Awanish Kumar Awasthi, Principal Secretary, Information, Tourism
and Religious Affairs, Government of Uttar Pradesh and Chairman Film Bandhu, on
this occasion said “On behalf of the Uttar Pradesh Government, I would like to
congratulate the IFFI and the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting. We
would love to continue our association with IFFI and Uttar Pradesh will
continue playing a pivotal role to boost filmmaking in India. We are looking forward
to developing the state into a filmmaking hub and with such associations we
plan to make more creative investments like developing a film institute in
Varanasi and a film city in Lucknow.”
Dulam
Satyanarayana, the award winning documentary filmmaker who is working closely
with the Telangana Government to promote state tourism remarked “I am glad that
we have been offered such a great platform by IFFI and Film Bazaar to boost
tourism and filmmaking in the state of Telangana. It has also given us an opportunity
to showcase the State to producers, distributors and other members of the
filmmaking fraternity as an exciting filmmaking location.”
