India and Canada have huge opportunities in the entertainment sector and the audio visual co-production treaty can lead to positive changes, says Apporva Srivastava, India’s Consul General in Toronto

India’s Consul General in Toronto Apporva Srivastava has urged filmmakers to make use of India-Canada audio visual co-production treaty.

She said this while speaking about India-Canada opportunities in the filmed entertainment space during the webinar session for the formal inaugural of the India’s participation at Toronto International Film Festival.

India’s virtual participation at TIFF is organised by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting in partnership with Confederation of Indian Industry.

Stating that India and Canada are natural partners “because we share a truly unique relationship,” Srivastava added: “We are both vibrant democracies. We are wedded to rule of law, we share Commonwealth traditions, we have similar parliamentary model and we speak the same language. In today’s world, Canada and India are two multicultural societies which truly value and cherish diversity.”

“We are bound together by strong people to people ties, we have more than 1.6 million strong Indian Diaspora, 700,000 Indian citizens live and work here 250,000 Indian students in Canada. India is now the source of largest source of migrants and international students in Canada. These factors make Indian movies a great draw in Canada.”

According to the diplomat, we need to work with Toronto International Film Festival with a huge Indian participation next year to celebrate 75 years of Indian independence.

“Fortunately, we have Mr. Cameron Bailey, TIFF Co-Director who’s a great friend of India and he is passionate about Indian cinema. Indian films have been a regular feature at TIFF,” she said.

She also called for interactions between Indian and Canadian screenplay writers, directors, producers so that they can take advantage of the India-Canada Co-Production Treaty.

“We need to create awareness about shooting locales in both India and Canada with each other,” she said.