States must develop friendly policies to encourage film tourism: Jaspal Singh Bindra

FICCI-EY knowledge report outlines advantages of film tourism

Mumbai: Day 2 at the 20th edition of FICCI FRAMES, the global media and entertainment convention started with a session titled ‘Shoot at site’. The panelists in the session discussed policies to ease film shoots across India and single window clearance for states.

Moderated by Mr Kulmeet Makkar, CEO, Producer Guild of India, the panelists included Ms. Usha Sharma, Director General, Archaeological Survey of India, Dr. Neelam Bala, Secretary, Animal Welfare Board of India, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Govt. of India and Mr. Vikramjit Roy, Head – Film Facilitation Office. A keynote address was delivered by Mr. Jaspal Singh Bindra, Chairman, FICCI Maharashtra State Council & Executive Chairman, Centrum Group.

The participation states were represented by Dr. Nitin Bhanudas Jawale, Managing Director, Odisha Film Development Corporation, Mr. Sudhir Sobti, Chief Manager (PR & Publicity / Tourism), Government of Delhi and Dr. Manisha Arora, Additional Director, Rajasthan Tourism.

In his keynote address, Mr. Jaspal Singh Bindra said, “The portrayal of destinations through films and televisions play a very important role. Legendary Mr. Yash Chopra was the one who made Switzerland a tourist destination for people in our country and was awarded by the Switzerland government. The whole thing is about awareness of a destination. They are about creating infrastructure around the destination and largely building a local ecosystem of tourism around that place. All of these suggest that formulating policies in states should be given adequate significance to film tourism policy as well. There is a need for a very friendly and proactive policy to enable to get approvals in a specific timeframe and get assistance on site from the respective government departments and add financial assistance.”

“The knowledge report (FICCI-EY knowledge report on film tourism) released today covers the film policies in 21 states of India. And that’s a very encouraging sign,” Said Mr. Kulmeet Makkar

Mr. Vikramjit Roy said, “When we talk about ease of filming, it is not just for the International filmmaker. Given India’s landscape, depth of the industry and the fact that we have such a robust film industry, it is also about how domestic film industry can harness and leverage more than one locations across India.”He also spoke about how the online applying for shoot at site has become a much smoother process where filmmakers can see locations, apply on a click of a button and once the process is completed, the concerned authorities help the filmmakers get necessary permissions to shoot anywhere in a state.

Ms. Neelam Bala spoke about creating awareness around using animals for shoots. “There is a paradigm shift in treatment of animals in India. The board is also creating awareness through trainings, workshops, seminars and Personal visits. There are strict rules about monitoring related to the use of animals in the movies and other media as films require permissions before releasing the audio visual for public viewing,” she said.