State looks at Bollywood to give tourism a boost

Parag Jain Nainuttia, managing director, Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC), said tourism department officials convened a meeting with people from the film industry and associations recently to work out how the number of clearances required for shooting in Maharashtra can be reduced.

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“Informal discussions have revealed that today filmmakers require 86 permissions for a single shoot in the state. This is much higher than the average in other states. We have asked associations to give a detailed report of these. We would like to bring down the number of clearances to at par with what is required in other countries and cities,” Jain said. He, however, did not comment on the exact number of approvals required to shoot in other Indian states.

“Countries such as Turkey, Greece and Russia promote themselves through Bollywood. We certainly want to have more films to be shot in Maharashtra, especially Mumbai. We are not only looking at reducing the number of clearances required to shoot, but also the cost of shooting due to the various duties and taxes,” Jain said. The state government is currently working on a new tourism policy, which would look at the duties levied on the entertainment sector.

Boosting tourism in the state is one of the priority agendas of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who heads the tourism department.

The number of permissions required for film shoots in Maharashtra was also one of the major concerns that industry experts such as actor and producer Amitabh Bachchan and producer Ekta Kapoor had aired at the ‘Mumbai Next’ conclave. The one-day conference was to mark the beginning of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’ mission to transform the Mumbai Metropolitan Region into a global financial, commercial and entertainment hub.

Kapoor had said that the average cost of shooting for a day in Mumbai at the Gateway of India is Rs 2.25 lakh, whereas to shoot at the India Gate in Delhi, filmmakers have to shell out Rs 1.25 lakh.

Kamlesh Pandey, president of Federation of Western India Cine Employees, and a screenwriter, said, “Maharashtra is the most ‘shooting unfriendly’ state. Delhi and Gujarat are slightly better. In fact, many TV producers are going to Gujarat to shoot. Filmmakers are criticised for shooting outside India, but the truth is that we get a single-window clearance there. Authorities are more cooperative and there is no corruption.”

manasi.phadke@expressindia.com