Goa emerging as Mecca for film production

Curtains came down at the Film Bazaar 2005, with industry representatives making a strong pitch to position the tourist centric Goa, as the "best shooting, post production and digital film-making destination."

The talking point of the Film Bazaar was India's strength as shooting and post production destination. While, shooting in India for foreign movies has increased by over 100 per cent this year, service providers for creating foreign locales in India have also come up.

Said Aruna Har Prasad of KAS Movies, "India does not only have locales, but we have created overseas locales in the country and thereby, has made substantial savings for overseas companies."

The company, which also has its base in Goa, says that 110 overseas film shooting took place in Goa alone in the last one year. Interestingly, over half of a dozen films were shot at the residence of a well-known cartoonist from Goa, Mario Miranda.

"When Indian film producers go abroad for shooting, they are bound to take 30 per cent of the foreign crew. But, when foreign producers come to India, they do not require any work permit and can work as long as they like. Hence, it is better to tap our rich resources here instead of focusing on foreign trips," Aruna said.

The focus of keeping the Film Bazaar limited to a small number of exhibitors and concentrated workshops on co-production agreements and opportunities has worked well with a large participation from overseas countries and delegates from India.

"Our endeavour is to make the Film Bazaar a meeting ground for trading activity for the Indian cinema and the activity at the Film Bazaar 2005 was encouraging," claims Afzal Amanullah, director of the Film Festival.

Bobby Bedi, chairman of the CII's National Entertainment Committee opined that he has no doubt that the new look Film Bazaar will occupy the top five slots among the film markets in the world in the next couple of years. "I have no doubt that the Film Bazaar will become a key international market for cinema," laments Bedi, who is also the MD of Kaleidoscope Entertainment.

His last movie Mangal Pandey was released in 80 countries across the globe.

Celebrities such as Jackie Shroff, Nasserudin Shah, Sarika were also present at the Film Bazaar. Filmmakers from countries such as Italy, Ireland, Germany and Holland, who were keen on expanding their business in India and taking Indian movies to their country were also present.

Sivaraman of Prasad Labs stated that India could do big business in post production, provided everyone had faith in whatever they do.