PANAJI, India – In a bid to boost ‘film tourism’ in India, the Union government is setting up a centralized single-window clearance system that will act as a one-stop shop for all necessary shooting permissions in any state in the country, said Iffi director Shankar Mohan.
Calling it a “huge step” towards the “soft power” policy that the government is pursuing, Mohan said, “There is no unified film policy to guide the industry. Cinema is a state subject and each state has its own laws and entertainment tax rates that the Centre has no control over. There was an urgent need for a single-window system at the central level, to make India more filming-friendly to foreign and domestic filmmakers.”
Mohan was speaking on Monday at a summit on ‘Indian Locations’ organized by the Confederation of India Industry (CII) at Kala Academy.
The system will be operated by a committee headed by secretary for information and broadcasting, Bimal Jhulka.
“A filmmaker who wants to shoot in a different state from where he is located needs to fill up a simple application form and submit it to the central committee, consisting of ‘nodal officers’ representing every Indian state. This will be a single point of contact, as the state nodal officer will then coordinate with all individual government bodies-the local police, the railways, Archeological Survey of India, village panchayats, etc to obtain all necessary permissions.
“The film crew will not have to do any running about and all relevant details like shooting charges, local laws and restrictions will be communicated to them by the respective state’s nodal officer well in advance,” Mohan explained, pointing out that it would be a transparent process from start to finish.
The committee will meet in Delhi once a month, or more often, depending on the number of applications received.
The I&B ministry is also in the process of setting up a website to receive ‘online applications’ from filmmakers. “The website will furnish all the details of different locations that a film crew would need to know. Independent and first-time filmmakers will receive special guidance from the nodal officers,” Mohan said.
WHAT TO TAKE AWAY FROM THIS ARTICLE:
- “A filmmaker who wants to shoot in a different state from where he is located needs to fill up a simple application form and submit it to the central committee, consisting of ‘nodal officers’.
- In India, the Union government is setting up a centralized single-window clearance system that will act as a one-stop shop for all necessary shooting permissions in any state in the country, said Iffi director Shankar Mohan.
- This will be a single point of contact, as the state nodal officer will then coordinate with all individual government bodies-the local police, the railways, Archeological Survey of India, village panchayats, etc to obtain all necessary permissions.