Film industry has grown global: I&B minister

With more international releases and more crossover films, the Indian film industry is thinking truly global, said Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union minister for Information & Broadcasting.

"Today the losses that a film makes in the domestic market are, many a time, made good in the international market. Indian films have become the toast of the world. More and more crossover films are being made" said Prasad, while delivering the inaugural address at Ficci Frames 2004, the annual global convention on entertainment here today.

Indian filmmakers are thinking differently and have started to think big, he added.

Sounding extremely bullish on the entertainment industry, the minister said that the nineties were the era of the IT and communications. But there is a feeling that the first decade of the new millennium belongs to entertainment, he added.

Tessa Jowel, the UK secretary of state in the department of culture (media & culture) said that the UK was interested in inking a co-production treaty between the two countries.

"We are attracted in principle to a treaty. Who wouldn't want to do business with the biggest film industry in the world. But if we were to have a treaty it has got to be the right one. It has got to be a treaty that brings benefits to everyone. In this context, I would like to mention that my department and the UK Film Council are currently undertaking a major review of the UK's framework of film co-production treaties-right across the board. The review, once concluded may well recommend a brand new framework of treaties between the UK and other film-making countries," she said.

Yogendra K Modi, president of Ficci, said in his address that the global entertainment industry is expected to grow at 4.7 per cent till 2007 taking it $ 1.4 trillion.

"Having grown at a phenomenal rate of 15 per cent, the Indian entertainment industry has hit new heights in 2003. It is poised to grow at a compounded rate of 17 per cent in the next five years. Take advantage of this revolution before the entry costs climb too high," said Modi.