PHD Chamber Of Commerce & Industry

The government of the day is contemplating a legislation to drastically prune the existing lists of host of permissions that are required to be obtained for shooting films for both domestic and overseas film producers as well as film makers, according to Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs & Minority Affairs (IC), Mr. Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.

The proposed legislation could be brought about either in the forthcoming winter session or else latest by the budget session of the Parliament as the government of the day is totally receptive to the needs of film industry since it connects and accelerates people-to-people contact, besides promoting tourism through films and other such modes of visual communications, added the Minister.

Inaugurating a Conference on Film Tourism-India: The Focal Hub under aegis of PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry here today, Mr. Naqvi said that the government was conscious of the fact that film producers and film makers are subjected to obtaining host of clearances from centre as well as states before these are permitted to film a particular location at a particular part of the country. 

“This delays their schedule of timely deliveries of their production as well subject them to lots of inconveniences.  Therefore, the government is going to take corrective measures to sort out this problem through a proper legislation, details of which could not be made public at this juncture because of various reasons but what is being seriously contemplating at the different quarters of the government is a legislation which would come about either in the forthcoming winter session or else latest by the budget session”, said Mr. Naqvi.

The aforesaid remarks of the Minister came immediately after the well known film producers and directors such as Mr. Prakash Jha and Mr. Madhur Bhandarkar jointly urged the government to drastically reduce the list of permissions for film shooting currently numbering close to 35 from various governmental agencies as the current regime is highly bureaucratic and de-incentivize the film makers to shoot spots domestically available and chose to go overseas for the purpose as destinations there are shot with little interactions with authorities.

CEO, Prasar Bharti, Mr. Jawhar Sircar who also spoke on the occasion emphasized and appealed the film producing fraternity to avoid shooting situations and sights that do not represent the genuine facts of the country and damage its brand value in the eyes of foreigners.

President, PHD Chamber, Dr. Mahesh Gupta in his welcome remarks also sought conditions and atmosphere that are friendly to promote  tourism through films and other visual media.

In his remarks, Secretary General, PHD Chamber, Mr. Saurabh Sanyal promised to the government that the Chamber would pro-actively play the role of catalyst to promote the government policies on all fronts including that of tourism.