At the 63rd National Film Awards function held in New Delhi, Gujarat tourism was conferred with the national award for “Most Film Friendly State”.
Notably, Gujarat has become the first state ever to have received such an award, which is specially conceived to promote film tourism in States.
The award becomes more special as it comes just days after the release of Film Policy for Promotion of Gujarati Cinema. Picturesque locations, friendly people, efficient administration & robust infrastructure make Gujarat the most encouraging state for film tourism & promotion.
The award was received by Jayesh Radadia, Minister of State for Tourism, Government of Gujarat, from the President of India, Pranab Mukherjee.
Gujarat was adjudged as the best among the 16 entries.
In its latest Media and Entertainment Industry Report 2016, FICCI-KPMG noted that Gujarati film industry was on a strong revival path with record box office collections in 2015, up from Rs. 7 crore in 2014 to Rs. 55 crore, showing the highest growth among all other regional cinema.
In the said policy, the state government has laid down financial incentives in terms of subsidy and award to promote Gujarati films.
The government has created different slabs to different grades of Gujarati movies, which start from Rs. 5 lakh to up to Rs. 50 lakh.
Also, there is an additional incentive of Rs. 5 crore to national award winning films.
Film tourism is an effective tool to promote ‘State Tourism’ worldwide. Tourism Corporation of Gujarat Ltd had established a film cell in January 2014 and introduced government resolution to facilitate the production houses that are in the field of film/ documentary/ advertisement/ TV serials making.
Gujarat tourism is playing the role of a nodal agency to develop film tourism in the state of Gujarat. TCGL had also won the National Tourism Award for Best Film Friendly Promotion State for 2013-14.