French minister for culture H. E. Franck Riester, will undertake a visit to India from 26 to 29 January 2020. He will be in Mumbai on 27 January before going to Delhi. A specialised B2B meeting has been organised under the banner of ‘Destination France’ to promote France as a film shooting destination as well as to explore joint ventures, co-operation projects, partnerships. Riester will address the main participants of this meet.
Within a span of just four years, India has moved from the 150th to the first place in terms of data consumption, especially video content. France, for its part, is the world’s second largest exporter of audio-visual content. France and India are therefore a good match when it comes to video content demand and supply. Besides, co-productions form an attractive plank to work together on. Hence, Riester will explore synergies in the field of audiovisual cooperation. He will also seek new collaborative opportunities in the music industry.
After the B2B meeting, Riester will be meeting IIT Bombay director prof Subhasis Chaudhuri, and speak thereafter to the audience on How the Economics of Culture is Reshaping the World. In this session, the minister will shed light on the disconnectedness of our world and dwell upon the unlimited career prospects that technology students must explore outside of conventional realms.
Riester will also visit the new office of Ubisoft, a French company that first entered India in 2008 and set up its office in Pune, India. It then opened its Mumbai office in October 2018, which is entirely dedicated to creating original video gaming content.
On 28 January, Riester will be in New Delhi where he will meet minister of information and broadcasting Prakash Javadekar and minister of culture Prahalad Singh Patel, as well as key policy makers. He will also inaugurate the Gérard Garouste exhibition at the NGMA. Later, during a special reception, he will confer the medal of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters) on renowned theatre personality and junoon co-founder and director, and Prithvi Theatre former director Sanjna Kapoor.
