INVC NEWS
Mumbai,
PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI) organized the 3rd edition of Global Film Tourism Conclave with the theme ‘Transforming Location into Vacation’ on 11 January 2019 at JW Marriott Mumbai Juhu. The programme was supported by the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India. Producers Guild of India was the Synergy Partner for the programme.
Inaugurating the Conclave, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Union Minister for Minority Affairs, Government of India, said, “During my tenure as the Information & Broadcasting Minister, I persuaded the government to form a single window clearance for Indian and international films. It is the right time now to create a uniform single window system across India to get the permissions for shooting of films. Organizations such as PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry can play an important role in encouraging these possibilities.”
Satyajeet Rajan (IAS), Director General, Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, spoke about the initiatives of the Ministry of Tourism and various state governments for promoting Film Tourism. He said that the Government of India has also approved execution of MoUs with countries such as Romania and Bulgaria to foster bilateral cooperation through film tourism for promoting the two countries as attractive tourism destinations.
PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry and its Knowledge Partner- Ernst & Young have jointly released a Knowledge Report ‘Building brand India through film tourism’. The report shares suggested avenues for collaboration and policy initiatives that the industry can undertake towards making films an effective investment medium to enable destination tourism in India.
The report says that there is a potential for up to a million film tourists to visit India by 2022 which could result in revenues of up to $3 billion. The Indian film industry is one of the fastest growing sectors in the country today and has grown from INR 122 billion in 2016 to INR 156 billion in 2017, representing a growth rate of 28%. It is also one of the largest producers of cinematographic films in the world and the projected size of the industry is estimated to reach INR 204 billion by 2019.
Leading Indian Film Director and Producer, Ramesh Sippy and noted Actor, Producer and Director, Satish Kaushik were felicitated during the programme for their contribution towards the Indian cinema. They requested to curb the lengthy process of approvals and permissions to shoot in India and urged the state tourism boards to come out with film industry friendly policy.
D. K. Aggarwal, Senior Vice President, PHDCCI, said films are a great source of showcasing any country’s culture, heritage and vast economic potentials. “Indian film industry achieved exponential growth of 27% in 2017- both domestic and international. PHDCCI is committed to create such meaningful platforms, to do its bit in enabling all the parameters of the tourism industry to grow and flourish further,” he said.
Several other Film and TV personalities- Anupam Shyam, Deepak Tijori, Rahul Mittra, Rajat Rawail, Khemchand Bhagnani, Vinod Bachchan, Amitabh Parashar, Rajesh Puri, Ashu Trikha, Ganesh Jain, Raju Mavani, Aarti Singh, Ihana Dhillon, Pooja Bisht, Nisheeth Chandra, Dilip Shukla and Umber Jafri were felicitated during the programme.
Panel Discussion 1: ‘Making India a Global Film Tourism Hub: Opportunities and Challenges’ had Abhijeet Patil, Chairman, Raja Rani Travels as the moderator and witnessed Vinod Zutshi (IAS), Former Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Govt. of India; Sudhir Sobti, Chief Manager, Delhi Tourism and Transportation Development Corporation; Vikramjit Roy, Head– Film Facilitation Office, National Film Development Corporation; Aashish Singh, CEO– Motion Pictures, Balaji Telefilms Ltd; Shashank Khaitan, Indian Film Director; and Utkarsh Sanghvi, Partner, Ernst & Young India.
Panel Discussion 2: ‘Importance of Bollywood movies in increasing Indian tourists overseas’ had Kulmeet Makkar, CEO, Producers Guild of India moderating the session. The panelists were H.E. Radu Octavian Dobre, Ambassador, Embassy of Romania in the Republic of India; Iliya Dekov, Counsellor, Embassy of the Republic of Bulgaria to India; Ferenc Jari, Consul General, Consulate General of Hungary; Zaal Choksi, Executive- Marketing & PR, Macao Government Tourism Office; Marijke Desouza, Executive Producer, Dharma Productions and Aashish Singh, CEO– Motion Pictures, Balaji Telefilms Ltd.
The panelists highlighted that inadequate basic infrastructure such as roads, inland water transport, air connectivity acts are the biggest hindrance to the Indian film tourism industry. There is an urgent need for investment in infrastructure linking roads, railways and airports, to curtail such hindrances and provide basic infrastructure support to film tourism.
In parallel to the Panel Discussions, there was also an Exhibition Platform for destinations to showcase locations, tax incentives and subsidies.
Senior officials from Production Houses like Azure Entertainment Pvt Ltd, Balaji Telefilms Ltd, Benchmark Pictures Pvt Ltd, Coconut Motion Pictures, Creative Eye Ltd, Dharma Productions Pvt Ltd, Eagle Films Pvt Ltd, Essel Vision Productions Ltd, Excel Entertainment Pvt Ltd, Friday Filmworks, Rajkumar Hirani Films Pvt Ltd, Wizcraft International Entertainment Pvt Ltd, Yash Raj Films Pvt Ltd marked their presence at the programme.
Countries like Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Egypt, Fiji, Hungary, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Norway, Romania, Spain, Sri Lanka, Vietnam were represented by their Consul General at the programme.
Yogesh Srivastav, Principal Director, PHDCCI, gave the formal concluding remarks. The Conclave was attended by over 150 delegates.
