The Indian Government on Monday held an interaction with representatives of the media and entertainment sector to discuss strategies for unleashing the industry’s full potential and making India a content hub.At the meeting, held in Mumbai, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Secretary Apurva Chandra’s message was simple and clear: leverage various platforms and support the government’s endeavour to make India a global content hub.

Development of the audio-visual sector requires industry-friendly policies, collaboration and regular interaction between the government and industry stakeholders, the senior official emphasised at the meeting organised by the National Film Development Corporation, MIB’s nodal developmental agency in the film sector.

According to an official statement, the M&E industry was represented by acclaimed filmmakers and industry professionals like Dinesh Vijan, founder of Maddock Films; Apoorva Mehta, CEO of Dharma Productions; filmmakers Ayan Mukerji and R. Balki; Vikram Malhotra, CEO of Abundantia; Gaurav Gandhi and Aparna Purohit of Amazon Prime Video;, Monica Shergill of Netflix; Jayanti Lal Gada, Chairman of PEN India; Bhavini Sheth, CEO of Balaji Motion Pictures; Shibasish Sarkar, the newly-elected President of Producers Guild of India; Nitin Tej Ahuja CEO of Producers Guild of India, and producers Mahaveer Jain and Madhu Mantena.

The deliberations centered around the strategic initiatives taken by the government to unleash the potential of the M&E industry and the ministry’s efforts at easing norms for location shooting in India through the Film Facilitation Office, while onboarding Invest India to expand its outreach to the domestic and international industry.

The recently launched Incentive Scheme for International Productions and Official Co-productions was discussed in detail, including the benefits it would bring to content creation in India. The industry reps were urged to leverage the FFO ecosystem and their suggestions on the incentives were duly noted.

Feedback was also sought on the amendments made in the Draft Cinematograph (Amendment) Bill, 2021 and government officials appreciated the suggestions received from the industry participants.

The stakeholders were also apprised of the Ministry’s recognition of the industry’s concern towards theatre density in India and the consequent development of a single window ecosystem and that a model law for the ease of permission for construction of screens/theatres was being evolved.

Secretary Chandra, while summing up Monday’s interaction, said: “The engagement with the industry served as a perfect opportunity to apprise the various stakeholders of the efforts being made by the Ministry to give an impetus to the film industry. The response from the participants was encouraging and we have urged them to leverage these various platforms and support our endeavor to make India a global content hub.”