The Government of India is now redesigning the Film Facilitation Office (FFO) in partnership with Invest India, the national investment promotion and facilitation agency, in order to attract more foreign investment into the film sector.

With its geographical and cultural richness, India is a fascinating country and a genuinely unique and wonderful location for filming. India has diverse scenery, ranging from snow-capped mountains to gorgeous beaches, expansive deserts to deep woods, making it an ideal site for action and romantic films.

When you combine this with a large pool of skilled workers, including directors, producers, cinematographers, actors, and technicians, as well as various incentives to foreign film production companies to encourage filming in India, such as tax breaks, subsidies, and other financial benefits, it becomes an irresistible deal to produce high-quality films in the country.

India also has a rapidly growing film industry, which is helping to put the country on the map as a destination for international film production.

“We have a strong intellectual property regime, and the digital medium now complements the other more established modes of consumption and dissemination such as theatres and movies. This has brought about a democratisation of consumer choice like never before, and our government is intent on preserving this via support to the creative industries,” says Anurag Thakur, Minister for Information & Broadcasting and Youth Affairs & Sports With an aim to unlock the immense potential of India as a filming destination, the Government of India is now revamping Film Facilitation Office (FFO) in collaboration with Invest India— the national investment promotion and facilitation agency—to attract more foreign investment into film sector.

Co-Production Treaties and Incentives for Foreign Filmmakers

India has Audio Visual co-production treaties with 15 countries. Recently, India also announced an incentive scheme for audio-visual co-production and shooting of foreign films in India to unleash the potential of the M&E Industry.

The Incentive Scheme will be executed through Film Facilitation Office (FFO) under the aegis of National Film Development Corporation (NFDC). Some of the salient features of the scheme are:

 For all qualifying projects, the international film production company can claim a payable cash incentive of upto 30% on Qualifying Expenditure in India subject to a maximum of INR 2 crore (USD 260,000).

 In case of foreign films shootings in India, an additional 5% bonus upto a maximum of INR 50 lakhs (USD 65,000) as additional reimbursement would be granted for employing 15% or more manpower in India.

 The incentives of the schemes can be claimed under either of the Schemes and not for both. To be eligible for the scheme the filmmakers need to ensure that the project must have been granted the “Co-Production” status by the Ministry of I&B and the participating country must fall under one of India’s official bi-lateral co-production treaties on Audio-Visual Co-production.

 Projects that have been granted official Co-production Status after May 1, 2022 are eligible for the incentive.

 International productions that have been granted shooting permission by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting and Ministry of External Affairs (for documentaries only) after May 1, 2022 are also eligible for the incentive.

 As far as the disbursement mechanism is concerned, the Incentives will be disbursed in two stage—Interim and Final. The Final disbursement claim can be made only once the project is complete in India, as per the guidelines under the scheme. Incentives are provided on the recommendation of a Special Incentive Evaluation Committee.

“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 and also facilitate Indian filmmakers and the states to provide the facilities which make the process seamless,” says Apoorva Chandra, Secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

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.

Besides increasing FFO’s operational efficiency, the move allows filmmakers and investors to benefit from Invest India’s expertise in encouraging foreign investment into India’s film business. India also enables up to 100 per cent Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in film and television projects through the automatic route.

Addressing Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Film Festival in Mumbai recently, Joint Secretary Prithul Kumar highlighted the role of FFO, which provides a catalogue of shooting locations, and rebates in different states to incentivise and promote Film production in India.

In addition, the FFO portal has been successfully integrated with India’s National Single Window System (NSWS) for Business Approvals, namely ‘Maadhyam’, in an endeavor to streamline with the Central Government’s initiative for Ease of Doing Business in India.

The integration allows applicants coming on NSWS portal for filming permissions to access the FFO online application for international filmmakers for filming in India. The NSWS has access to over 100 Central level approvals and State Single Window Systems of 14 States/UTs with one user id and password.

To ease filming in Railways, the FFO and Ministry of Railways have integrated to create a Single Window Filming Mechanism to make the permission for filming across Railways premises streamlined and efficient. Filmmakers can also apply for permits for location recce, shooting in monuments under the jurisdiction of Archaeological Survey of India.

International filmmakers can also promote talent exchange and explore Co-production Agreements with India and avail benefits of the existing Indian film incentives through joint projects.

India has Audio Visual co-production treaties with 15 countries. Recently, India also announced an incentive scheme for audio-visual coproduction and shooting of foreign films in India to unleash the potential of the M&E Industry.

The Incentive Scheme is executed through FFO under the aegis of National Film Development Corporation (NFDC).

For all qualifying projects, the international film production company can claim a payable cash incentive of upto 30% on Qualifying Expenditure in India subject to a maximum of INR 2 crore (USD 260,000).

In case of foreign films shootings in India, an additional 5% bonus upto a maximum of INR 50 lakhs (USD 65,000) as additional reimbursement is granted for employing 15% or more manpower in India.

To be eligible for the scheme the filmmakers need to ensure that the project must have been granted the “Co-Production” status by the Ministry of I&B and the participating country must fall under one of the India’s official bi-lateral coproduction treaties on Audio-Visual Co-production.

As far as the disbursement mechanism is concerned, the Incentives are disbursed in two stages—Interim and Final. The Final disbursement claim can be made only once the project is complete in India, as per the guidelines under the scheme. Incentives are provided on the recommendation of a Special Incentive Evaluation Committee.