Indian content has been ruling the hearts and minds of the global audience: Union Minister Shri Anurag Thakur
May 19, 2022
"Gold rush amongst broadcasters as well as telcos to set up own OTT Platforms
for India"
Will take all measures to speed up Co- Production Collaborations from around
the world: Shri Anurag Thakur
In 5 years India will be amongst the leading quality content producing nations
across the globe
Government policies to help media and entertainment ecosystem to generate USD
53 billion annually by 2025
India is about to become the world's biggest 'influencer economy': Shri Shekhar
Kapur
NEW DELHI, 19 May 2022: "है प्रीत जहां
की रीत सदा, मैं गीत
वहां के गाता हूं, भारत का
रहने वाला हूं, भारत की
बात सुनाता हूं ", carrying
the tales of Bharat, Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting Shri Anurag
Thakur today addressed the India Forum at the famous Palais des Festivals in
Cannes. Representing a 6000 year old culture and 1.3 billion people the
Minister delivered his keynote address in front of audience comprising foreign
and Indian filmmakers, journalists and delegates.
The session moderated by Ms Vani
Tripathi had on the panel Shri Apurva Chandra, Secretary, Information &
Broadcasting, Government of India, Shri Prasoon Joshi, Writer, Poet, and
Chairman, Central Board of Film Certification, Shri R Madhavan, Indian actor,
writer, director, and producer, Shri Shekhar Kapur, Indian filmmaker, actor,
television presenter and entrepreneur and Chairman, Film and Television
Institute of India, Mr. Scott Roxborough, Editor, Hollywood Reporter, Mr.
Philip Avril, Producer
This year marks the 75th year celebration of both Cannes Film Festival and of establishment of India-France diplomatic relations. Speaking on the importance of Cannes the Minister said that over the years, 'Festival de Cannes' has played a significant role in strengthening Indo-French relations. The Minister noted historic highs of Indian cinema and said that Indian content has been ruling the hearts and minds of the global audience and the steppingstone was laid by bestowing the Palme d'Or to the prolific Indian filmmaker Chetan Anand's film Neecha Nagar in 1946 and a decade later in 1956, Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali won the Palme d'Or. Today the recognition of our cinematic excellence the world over is set to manifest the country into the 'content hub of the world', the Minister added.
Speaking on India's current presence in
Cannes the Minister said, "India intends to give you - the global audience, a
flavour of the country's cinematic excellence, technological prowess, rich
culture and illustrious heritage of storytelling". "India's red-carpet presence
captured the diversity of our cinematic excellence not only in terms of
representation of actors and film makers from various languages and regions,
but also OTT platforms, with a strong presence of music composers and a folk
artist who have enthralled audiences both young and old", the Minister further
added.
The Minister informed the audience about
the presence of Indian startups in Cannes and said the startups from media and
entertainment sector will showcase their technological prowess and pitch to the
best from the world of AVGC along with a strong delegation of animation
professionals from the sector.
The Minister informed the audience of
the various measures by both Union and State governments and said while Center
has envisioned major initiatives over the last 8 years to boost co-productions,
film shoots and film facilitations in India, States like Uttar Pradesh and
Madhya Pradesh have formulated their own film facilitation policies and
provided co-production opportunities. He stated that these efforts aimed at
boosting India's media and entertainment ecosystem, which is expected to
generate USD 53 billion annually by 2025.
In one such measure, "Government of
India officially designated audiovisual services as one of 12 'champion service
sectors' and recently set up an AVGC task force comprising of industry leaders
to prepare a policy roadmap for India to take a quantum leap in this sector and
position us as the preferred 'postproduction hub of the world' ".
Shri Anurag Thakur said that on one hand
artificial intelligence, virtual reality, immersive technologies such as the
Metaverse, present immense possibilities to India's IT skilled workforce, the
OTT market in India is predicted to grow at 21% annually to nearly 2 billion
Dollars by 2024 on the other.
The Minister promised that the
Government will take all necessary measures to transform India into a Global
Content Subcontinent and use the skills of our youth to make India the
preferred Postproduction Hub for the AVGC sector and to that end Government
will speed up co-production collaborations from around the world and also offer
the best locations in India for Film Shoots. These steps, Shri Thakur
envisioned, will in
the next 5 years, catapult Bharat into the league of leading quality content
producing nations across the globe.
Shri Thakur concluded his statement by
extending a warm invitation to shoot in India, bask in its hospitality and
relish its breath-taking landscape.
Shri Shekhar Kapur spoke about the effect of access to cheap broadband and mobile devices having a disruptive effect on movie industry and said that India is about to become the world's biggest 'influencer economy' and that cinema will soon be redefined by the young film makers.
India is a pool of restless dreams,
dreams that are restless to make it big, of looking forward, added Shri Prasoon
Joshi to the comment of Shri Shekhar Kapur.
Shri Apurva Chandra cited movies like
Lunchbox, Mr and Mrs Iyer and Rocketry that are typically Indian in their story
but have resonated with audience across the world. He further reiterated the
incentives announced by the Government of India yesterday for film makers from
across the world.
Shri R. Madhavan commented on how India has so much to tell the world in the field of science and technology and the cinema world must explore this idea. From Aryabhatta to Sundar Pichai India has extraordinary stories which are aspirations of youngsters around the world.