Cannes / New Delhi / Mumbai | 18 May 2022
Shooting of foreign films in India got a new boost today, with the Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Shri Anurag Thakur announcing two schemes to incentivize shooting of foreign films and foreign co-productions with India. The two schemes viz
- Incentive Scheme for Audio-Visual Co-production and
- Incentive Scheme Shooting of foreign films in India
are aimed at unleashing the potential of Indian media and entertainment industry.
The Minister announced these two schemes after inaugurating the India Pavilion at the ongoing Cannes Film Festival in France.
Talking about the aspects of the incentives Shri Thakur informed that for official co-productions, international film production companies can claim a reimbursement of up to 30% on Qualifying Expenditure in India subject to a maximum of INR 2 crore.
Foreign films shooting in India can claim an additional 5% bonus up to a maximum of INR 50 lakhs (USD 65,000) as additional reimbursement if they employ 15% or more manpower from India.
The schemes will provide an impetus to, global collaborations with India and attract investment from foreign film makers and help promote India as a filming destination, the Minister said. (Details of the scheme are in Annex 1 below)
Expounding the deep social roots of Indian cinema Shri Anurag Thakur said that Creativity, excellence, and innovation in Indian cinema has developed hand in hand with sensitive treatment of subjects of social and national importance. “While being rooted in Indian culture, the Indian film industry has grown to acquire a universal character. And while preserving our age old stories, the Indian film makers are innovating in their art of storytelling through use of technology” the Minister added.
Crediting India’s film restoration work for its scale Shri Thakur said the Government has embarked on world’s largest film restoration project under the National Film Heritage Mission and as part of this drive, 2200 movies across languages and genres will be restored to their former glory.
IFFI 2022 Poster Unveiled
Shri Anurag Thakur, accompanied by the multi-talented celebrities like Shekhar Kapur, A R Rahman, Deepika Padukone, R Madhavan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Prasoon Joshi, released the official poster of 53rd edition of International Film Festival of India at the India Pavilion.
Rajasthani folk artiste Mame Khan, Secretary of I&B, Shri Apurva Chandra and India’s Ambassador to France Shri Jawed Ashraf were also present on the occasion.
Annexure
Salient features of the Incentive Schemes for Audio-Visual Co-production and Shooting of foreign films in India
Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, has decided to launch Incentive Schemes for International Productions that shoot in India and Official Co-productions with foreign countries.
The Incentive and eligibility
- Under the Incentive Scheme for Audio Visual Co-production, for all qualifying projects, the Indian Co-producer can claim a payable cash reimbursement of up to 30% on Qualifying Expenditure in India subject to a maximum of INR 2 crore (USD 260,000). However, reimbursement shall be divided among the Producers as per their respective share of the financial contribution for the project.
The project must have been granted a “Co-Production” status by the Ministry of I&B and the participating country(ies), under one of India’s official bi-lateral co-production treaties on Audio-Visual Co-production. Projects that have been granted official Co-production status after 01.04.2022 are eligible for the incentive.
- Under the Incentive Scheme for Shooting of Foreign Films in India, the same incentive as mentioned above shall be provided. Apart from that an additional 5% bonus up to a maximum of INR 50 lakhs (USD 65,000) can be claimed, as additional reimbursement and would be granted for employing 15% or more manpower in India.
To avail this scheme International productions that have been granted shooting permission by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting and Ministry of External Affairs (for documentaries only) after 01.04.2022 shall be eligible.
The Incentives will be disbursed in two stage i.e. Interim and Final. The final disbursement claim can be made once the project is complete in India. Incentives will be provided on the recommendation of a Special Incentive Evaluation Committee. (The detailed guidelines for which will be available on the FFO website). Moreover, incentives can be claimed under either of the Schemes and not for both.
The Incentive Scheme shall be executed through Film Facilitation Office (FFO) under the aegis of National Film Development Corporation (NFDC).
Source : Team I&B / NFDC
PIB Del / PIB Mum / 011/PM
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