Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting (I&B), Dr. L. Murugan said that Centre is committed to ‘Ease of Doing Business’ in the film industry alongside announcing about establishing a world class education institute for animation and VFX during his meeting with the officials of the South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce at Chennai (SIFCC).
The ministry of I&B has launched a portal where one can apply for permission to shoot from various departments. According to him,this will enable the producers to get permission online to shoot anywhere in India, thus ensuring the ‘Ease of Doing Business’.
A MoU with IIT, Mumbai has been signed to establish a world class education institute for animation and VFX, the minister said.
Representatives of various film trade associations were present during the event. They presented a memorandum on various requests and demands of the film Industry.
The issues presented in the memorandum were the problems faced by the film industry due to COVID, Animal Welfare Board certification, privacy issues, single window clearance for the film shoots, double taxation for the films and so on. They also requested for a unit of the animal welfare board to be present in regional censor board offices.
Some of the requests presented to him were adding more film industry members in the Censor Board, forming Censor Board Tribunal and broadcasting of popular movies including those which were chosen for filmfare awards by Doordarshan.
After receiving the memorandum and requests from the leaders of the various associations, the minister assured that the government will take every effort to redress the grievances of the film industry. He said it was a privilege to meet the representatives of different associations at SIFCC which is considered to be the Mecca of the South Indian Film Industry.
Murugan also requested all the members to attend the upcoming Goa Film Festival for exchange of ideas.
Earlier, Union Minister Piyush Goyal said that the Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comics (AVGC) sector is growing at nine per cent in the country and is expected to reach Rs 3 lakh crore by 2024. He said it has the potential to become the torchbearer of “Create in India” while addressing the second edition of CII Summit FX.