Centre to set up fund to help films get Oscars

The Centre is working on a plan to build a corpus fund that will be used to showcase Indian films before an international audience, in order to give the films a fighting chance to win trophies at the Oscars.

A recent proposal of the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry to this effect received a big thumbs-up from Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Now the ministry has started planning the dedicated corpus — funded by the government and the film industry — to finance full-fledged publicity campaigns for India’s entries in the run-up to the Academy Awards.

“The idea was recently discussed with the Prime Minister and he was absolutely thrilled about it. He agreed that we must do whatever it takes to showcase our films before a world audience, and immediately accepted the idea to set up a dedicated fund for this,” a top I&B ministry source told The Indian Express.

The sources said the idea germinated after Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Rathore visited the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. “Following the minister’s visit, there was a growing realisation that films from India were not receiving the adequate push that is required at the international fora,” a source said.

Once the subject made it to the discussion table, the sources said, it was discovered that the main reasons why Indian films were not able to gain much mileage internationally were related to either the choice of the film, minimal or nil networking efforts and virtually no campaign.

Ministry sources said that while many other countries were running dedicated campaigns to generate international interest in their films, India had so far lagged on this front. “We need to showcase our soft power. And money should not be a constraint. That is why this fund has been envisaged, so that we can aggressively push our films,” a source said.

This year, Chaitanya Tamhane’s debut film Court has been chosen as India’s official entry for the Oscars. The Marathi film has already bagged the National Award for the best feature film.

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Source:Indianexpress

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