Aiming to make India a hot destination for foreign film-makers, the Information & Broadcasting Ministry is working out details for setting up a Film Facilitation Unit. According to sources, locations in India are fast catching the attention of filmmakers across the world. Cashing on in this demand in the international film making scenario, the unit would help by way of being more accessible to international production houses and processing their requirements without delay. A web portal is also being developed by the Ministry through which the respective filmmakers can reach out directly.
This comes in the wake of a meeting of Consultative Committee of MPs held in February last. The meeting had discussed on projecting India as a destination for film shooting by foreign producers. They had also suggested on holding of more film festivals in the country to show case India’s locations before international film makers.
In another development, the Ministry honoured 13 eminent photographers across the country on Friday. Ace cinematographer Santosh Sivan was a member of the jury, amongst others . Surendra R Patel was presented the life-Time Achievement Award at the 4th National Photography Awards function on Friday. Swarup Dutta was given the award of Best Professional Photographer Award and R Sasikumar of Best Amateur Photographer. Ten photographers under the Special Mention category for both the Professional and Amateur segments were also honoured. The theme for the Professional Category was ‘Hamara Bharat Swachh Bharat’ and for the Amateur Category was ‘Mother and Child’.
The I&B ministry is further planning to hold photography and videography workshops in Jammu & Kashmir and Northeastern States on the lines of one which was held in the national capital , to provide more opportunity for state officials to hone their skills. The photography workshop in New Delhi gave exposure to more than 135 officials in this regard.