Films made in Assam should appeal to people of SE Asia: CM

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Monday called for preparing a road map to develop a film industry in the state by 2030 and said movies made in the state should appeal to a wider audience of South East Asia and the ASEAN countries.

The chief minister also urged the film fraternity to take advantage of the State Film Policy adopted at a Cabinet meeting on July 23.

"I urge the film fraternity to take advantage of the State Film Policy and prepare a road map for developing the film industry by 2030," Sonowal said.

He was addressing a programme in which he was felicitated by the Film Fraternity of Assam, a community of artists and technicians who are involved in Assamese movies, for approving the State Film Policy.

"Our government is making efforts to capture the market of South East Asia and ASEAN countries through Act East Policy and films can be one of the important tools towards realising this," Sonowal said.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is a regional intergovernmental organization comprising 10 countries in Southeast Asia.

Young filmmakers of the state should take advantage of the State Film Policy to make content-driven films with social messages, he said.

"It was one of the earliest commitments of the present state government of bringing the state film policy into force and now the commitment has been fulfilled," he said.

The new film policy approved Rs 25 lakh subsidy for film productions, which cost beyond Rs 1 crore. The subsidy will be Rs 1 crore for films honoured with a national award and Rs 2 crore for films nominated for Oscar.

A corpus fund for the welfare of artistes will also be created by collecting Re 1 from each ticket sold, according to the policy.

The chief minister urged the filmmakers of Assam to engage artistes and technicians from three hill districts of the state - Dima Hasao, Karbi Anglong, West Karbi Anglong - and Barak valley.

Films should forge greater unity among the people of all sections of the society, and depict the natural beauty of the state, he added.