India International Film Tourism Conclave (IIFTC) 2022 indeed proved to be a platform that brought together state tourism boards from India and 50 organizations representing 20 countries from across the globe. The conclave not only acted as a platform to showcase the destinations, but as a forum to discuss the gaps and challenges faced by the global and Indian film makers…writes Dr.Priyaankaa Mathur
The forum brought an intrinsic panel of discussion on ‘Formula for cross-border collaborations’ which brought together Indian producers Gaurav Bose Director, The Vermillion World, Chhitara Subramanium and Sr.VP, creative & production, Reliance Entertainment. The producers discussed collaborative possibilities with foreign film commissioners Sigmund Elias Holm, Film Commissioner, Western Norway Commission, Sameer Al Jaberi-Head locations and Government Resources, ADFC and Emin Guliyev, Head of Film Production, Filming Azerbaijan. The session was Moderated by Dr.Bhuvan Lall, celebrated Author and film maker.
The session brought to light the various parameters the producers need to take care of before finalizing locations which depends on the script, casting, budget, evaluation and pre and post shoot logistics. The major challenges faced by the production teams is when to connect with the tourism commissions, as they need incentives and assistance for the recce before a destination is finalised for the actual shootings for an entire film, short films or just for a film song or even a music video shoot. How can the tourism commissions incentivise these processes?
The international tourism and film commission representatives tried to provide solutions to gaps and challenges faced by Indian filmmakers, to enhance greater collaborative possibilities. They tried to provide solutions by throwing light on various locations for specific needs, filming technologies, incentive plans, and relaxations on the cost of budgeting and insurances that can be worked on to provide support to Indian filmmakers in the initial phases.
As part of the India state showcase segment, a dialogue was held between the representatives of Rajasthan Tourism Mr. Pawan Kumar Jain, Joint Director of the Department of Tourism, Gov. of India, and Mr. Umakant Chaudhary Deputy Director of Films, Adventure, and water)Madhya Pradesh Tourism. The session gave key insights on what makes Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh India’s most preferred destinations for film shootings, highlighting on their key offerings to Indian and international filmmakers primarily.
Rajasthan boasts of 75% Heritage hotels of India, rich heritage buildings, forts, desert, water bodies, even elephant rides which attract the filmmakers and foreign tourists to the state.
Elaborating on the Film Tourism Promotions Policy in Rajasthan Jain said, “Rajasthan offers time bound permissions within 15 days, incentives in the form of subsidies, from the point you shoot the film till the time the film is released we definitely provide rembursements up to 2 crores. We provide free of cost shooting permissions for the locations, which come under the control of the state governments.
Madhya Pradesh is known for its world heritage sites like Khajuraho and Sanchi. The state is well known for its wildlife especially for tigers,leopards and cheetahs and has many unexplored locations yet to be discovered by filmmakers. It has a very good connectivity from both railways and roads,which makes it one of the favorite shooting destinations for filmmakers
Madhya Pradesh Tourism has won the Award for the second time for the ‘Most Film Friendly State’.
Elaborating on the state’s Film promotion policies Chaudhary said, “The state has a dedicated film facilitation cell and is known to give the fastest and guaranteed film shooting permissions in less than 15 days and has been issued a notification under Public Service Guarantee Act. Madhya Pradesh Tourism is enhancing the process of subsidies for web series and serials. It has announced to give subsidies of rupees 2 crores for Hindi feature films and 10 crores for International film projects.
He added,” We also provide subsidies for documentaries which include rupees 2O lacs for national and 40 lacs for international projects. Madhya Pradesh also provides 30% subsidies for any film-related infrastructural development projects in the state such as development of a film City, post-production houses, and film training institutes and studios in Madhya Pradesh.”
The key highlight of Day 1 was the fireside chat between Mikael Svensson, Head of the South Sweden Film Commission and Co-President of the European Film Commission Network the founder, and Siddharth Roy Kapur, M.D. of Roy Kapur Films. Kapur shared his success mantra saying,” Follow your gut, as you need to fall in love with the story before you decide to produce it.”
He emphasized on ‘Follow your gut’ phenomenon with an example of the film ‘Rang De Basanti which he produced in 2005.It was only his gut feeling after reading the script that he felt that the film would do well.He chose to produce the film despite many trade pundits telling him, that the film won’t work as the film had a grave ending as the cast dies in the end. Eventually, Ronni Screwwala backed him with the talent who had stories that he loved instantly and incorporated into the film, the rest is history.
Kapur also talked about the anticipation of an Indian Oscar, which is long due. He shared how and what made the film the ‘Last film show’, special and one of his favorite films since the time he read the script. He also shared his viewpoint on the wide acceptance of South Indian cinema by Indian audiences and the changes that Indian cinema is witnessing in the post-pandemic era.
There were excellent country showcase presentations from Poland, followed by Indian states by Rajasthan and Madya Pradesh Tourism. The IIFTC impact award for cultural integration was presented to the Tamil Film Annabelle Setupati, which was received by G Jayaram from passion Studios.
