Invest India, the national investment promotion and facilitation agency of India, has been given the task of bringing in more investments into the country’s Media and Entertainment sector as part of the government’s efforts to boost the sector’s contribution to the national economy.  

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Invest India in order to revamp the operations of the Film Facilitation Office (FFO) that acts as a single window clearance and facilitation point for producers and production companies with a view to assist them in getting requisite filming permissions.

“The way the country is growing, I think in the next 10 years, we’ll be a $10 trillion economy. We have to target to take media and entertainment industry to more than 1% of that, which means that media and entertainment should grow $100 billion by 2030. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has merged the Film Division, the National Film Archive, the Children’s Film Society of India, and the Directorate of Film Festival into the National Film Development Corporation which is going to be the cinematic arm of the Ministry,” said Apurva Chandra, Secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

He further added that to revamp the FFO, its operations have been handed over to Invest India, the national investment promotion agency of the country created by Prime Minister Narendra Modi that acts as the advisor, guide, and facilitator to every investor looking to make a home in India and is the first point of reference for the global investment community.

“Invest India has been one of the most successful ventures in the country and is responsible for more than $100 billion FDI coming into India in this year. So, we would like to take help of Invest India to attract foreign investments into media and entertainment. We in the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting and NFDC are going to partner with Invest India to reach out to foreign countries, foreign filmmakers to come to India and shoot films and also collaborate with our country and also facilitate Indian filmmakers and the states to provide the facilities which make the process seamless,” he said.

This step has made Invest India the first point of contact for global production houses and filmmakers to help them start exploring India for their projects and support them at every step of the way throughout their journey in the world’s most liberal investment destination.

Recently, in a stakeholder consultation roundtable held on the sidelines of the 53rd edition of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa, Chandra has tasked Invest India, the organiser of the roundtable, to work with all the companies present at the event, understand their suggestions and take them forward. Currently, there are 16 co-production treaties with various countries and the Ministry aims to sign 15 more in the near future. 

Invest India has country desks in countries like Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and United States.