CII opens Film Bazaar at IFFI venue

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has set up a pavilion, buyer-seller lounge and an independent film-makers' lounge to showcase and promote its services, products and explore new business opportunities at the Film Bazaar during the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa.

The five-day Film Bazaar opened on Friday at the Kala Academy lawns here would have special workshops on scripting, location shooting, incentives, international markets, co-production and overseas locations and a perspective on the south Indian film industry.

Officials promoting the event believe that Film Bazaar could play an important role in promoting and positioning India as a post-production hub, help market Indian films abroad, strike co-production deals, promote Indian shooting locales and enable networking opportunities.

"This year's Film Bazaar will have a buyer-seller lounge, space for independent film-makers, locations lounge where states with strong tourist locations can pitch for shooting locale," Bobby Bedi, chairman of the CII's National Entertainment Committee, told Business Standard.

Participants in the Film Bazaar include overseas delegates-Greek production and location specialist Christos Alex Giotis, producer Ron Lavery of West Ham Films, scriptwriter Rex Weiner, and Latin American producer and distributor Helder Da Costa (Brazil).

The Film Bazaar is being organised by CII in co-ordination with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG), National Film Development Corporation, Directorate of Film Festivals (DFF) and Indian Film Exporters Association (IFEA).

"India is emerging as a global economic power drawing attention from the international business community. Along with India's exciting economic growth, the film entertainment space is also growing very stronger," Bedi said.

The film bazaar also provides business opportunity to production houses, technology companies and those providing services in the entire value chain of the business process of movie-making.

A series of seminars and workshops will be organised focusing on co-production treaties, interactions with global sales agents and scripting.

The companies participating in the film bazaar include Prasad Group, NFDC, Hyderabad-based Digiquest, Indian Film Exporters Association, Films Division, Chennai-based Golden Square Films, South Indian Film Exporters Association, Children's Film Society of India, Ramesh Deo Productions (promoting their Marathi movie) and the Kolkatta-based Madhurshree Creations.