Indo-Italian film co-production in the offing

India's News.Net
Tuesday 27th March, 2007 (IANS)

In a bid to foster greater links between their entertainment business, filmmakers from India and Italy would soon co-produce movies, said Italian officials here Tuesday.

Italian Communications Minister Paolo Gentiloni, who is leading a 110-member government and film delegation here, said that co-production of movies by the two countries was being worked out and would soon be announced.

'Our culture is so similar and we would like to do business in entertainment. Bollywood movies often have song and dance sequence shot in exotic locales in Italy and we would naturally want to co-produce such movies,' Gentiloni told IANS on the sidelines of the three-day FICCI Frames 2007, a flagship event for showcasing the growth in Indian entertainment industry.

'The FICCI Frames event has set several new benchmarks between the two countries. Bollywood movies would feature at the Rome Film Festival in October this year. We will also be signing several MOUs between the financial investment agency of the region of Lazio and FICCI (Federation of the Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry).'

Gentioni, who is leading the largest delegation at the conference, said that Italian film production companies would also like to shot Italian movies in Indian locales.

Meanwhile, a FICCI-commissioned study by major international accounting and consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers released at the conference predicted that India's media and entertainment business would be more than double in the next five years to reach the Rs.1 trillion mark in sales by 2011.

'India's sales from the media and entertainment business will more than double over the next five years to reach Rs.1 trillion or US$ 22.5 billion by 2011. In 2006, India's media and entertainment industry grossed about Rs.437 billion ($10.4 billion) up about 20 percent from the previous year,' it said.

Bollywood, India's most prolific film industry, alone accounts for over 900 movies a year.

Earlier, delegates dwelled upon the role of media in enhancing India's ability to access knowledge exchange through media and entertainment to connect India to the Global Village.

Delegates also expressed concern on the growing of piracy in media and entertainment.

'Piracy is growing into a global epidemic and the proportion of the menace has reached such a critical level that the very existence of the global entertainment industry is at stake,' said Italian senator Goffredo Bettini.

'It has to be tackled on a war footing by every segment of the entertainment industry by effective ways and means to safeguard intellectual property.'

Delegates from 20 countries, including Australia, US, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, China, South Africa, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Korea, Singapore, Pakistan, Russia, Malaysia and Kuwait are attending the three-day conference.

A specialised programme 'X/Media/Lab' bought together the world's leading digital media practitioners and innovators at the conference.

FICCI BAF (Best Animated Frames Award) recognising excellence in the animation, gaming and VFX were awarded in 17 categories.

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