The Union Secretary for Information and Broadcasting Apurva Chandra has exhorted the media and entertainment industry to set a target of growing the industry to more than USD 100 billion by the year 2030.

“India will be a 10 trillion dollar economy in the next 10 years, we should target that the media and entertainment sector should grow to more than 100 billion dollars by 2030. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting will do whatever it takes to support the M&E sector and help it grow,” he said at the inaugural session of FICCI Frames Fast Track 2022.

The secretary further shares that Invest India is going to be leveraged to bring in higher foreign investment into India in the film sector.

The ministry has merged various film units under one; NFDC based in Mumbai is going to be the hub of the cinematic arm of the government. With this, we want to revamp the film facilitation office.

“More than 100 billion dollars of FDI is coming to India this year. We want to leverage Invest India to bring in foreign investment, we will reach out to foreign filmmakers to come to India,” Chandra added.

The government of India will work with the states and formulate a model theatre policy. Over the past 5-6 years, the number of theatres has been on a decline. We need to reverse this trend, Chandra said.

He noted that when ticket prices were brought down to Rs. 75 three days back, all shows were full. “This shows that if price points are right, people can afford theatres. The craving to go to the theatres is there, so we need to work on how we can bring people back to theatres.”

The Secretary told the industry that he had a fruitful meeting with some stalwarts of the film industry on September 26, on the proposed amendments to the Cinematograph Act. “All stakeholders present supported proposed amendments for the introduction of anti-piracy provisions and age classification with UA category.” With the support of the film industry, we hope to table the amended Bill in the winter session of the parliament, he added.

The Secretary informed that the Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comics (AVGC) Promotion Task Force constituted by the Ministry of I&B will submit the report within the next 15 days or so. “We are compiling the reports of the sub Task Forces, and thereafter we will submit the recommendations and go through the process of adopting the report.”

He told the industry that AVGC is the future. “The best of Hollywood films are now getting created in Bengaluru and other places, AVGC is the next revolution like the IT revolution 20 years back.”

The National Centre of Excellence for AVGC is going to be set up in collaboration with the private sector, “I am happy to inform you that we have taken the in-principle decision to set up the AVGC Centre of Excellence in collaboration with the private sector. We are proposing a 48 percent stake for the Ministry of I&B, 26 percent for FICCI, and 26 percent for CII so that it is the private industry and not the government which leads the AVGC transformation. We hope that the Ministry of I&B functions as a catalyst for the upsurge in the media and entertainment industry.”