Film Bazaar 2015 hosted its first ever Film Tourism Workshop

The ninth edition of NFDC Film Bazaar which starts today, hosted its first ever ‘Film Tourism Workshop’. This successful workshop was held between November 18 to 20, 2015 as part of NFDC’s objective to promote film tourism and India as a filming destination. The sessions were conducted by International and Indian advisers covering various aspects to create a film friendly environment in the long term and give the tourism sector a boost. Representatives from Incredible India, Madhya Pradesh Tourism, Chhattisgarh Tourism, Gujarat Tourism and Punjab Tourism participated in this workshop.

International advisers who conducted the sessions were – Ruth Harley, Former CEO, Screen Australia and New Zealand Film Commission; Gisella Carr, Former CEO, Film New Zealand; James Weyman, Manager of Industry Initiatives, Ontario Media Development Corporation (OMDC); Anna E. Dziedzic, Project Manager, Film Commission Poland; Rezal Rehman, CEO, Pinewood Studios, Malaysia and Deborah Benatar, La Fabrique Films and Indian advisers were – Uday Singh, Managing Director, Motion Pictures Distributors Association, India; Iqbal Kidwai, Producer, IQK Media Private Limited and Sanjay Suri, Producer, KAHWA Entertainment.

James Weyman, Manager of Industry Initiatives, Ontario Media Development Corporation (OMDC)

The sessions covered important topics relating to Film Tourism including; marketing strategies, possible incentive packages that can be devised, infrastructure requirements and case-studies on film projects that made a significant impact on the tourism sector and a cost-benefit analysis of film tourism.

Ruth Harley & Gisella Carr covered a very interesting case-study on how New Zealand as a brand has completely changed with the filming of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit in the country. The focus of their session was how one needs to market a country and to maximize the potential of locations for effective promotion and marketing as tourism destinations. They also covered a very important aspect of how it has a great impact on the economy of the country and gain multiple benefits of promoting film shooting for outdoor locations.

James Weyman from OMDC informed the participants about creating the right mix of incentives that attract filmmakers. He also educated them about how it works in Ontario and the importance of promoting a healthy image of the location as a destination for filming.

In recent times, Poland has been used extensively by Bollywood for outdoor location shoots. Anna E. Dziedzic took the participants through the complete structure on how to create and operate a film-ready workforce &community as part of film tourism. Films like Shaandaar, Kick and Bangistan have been filmed in Poland as the country takes care of all the needs of a filmmaker and it is 40% cheaper than other European countries.

Sanjay Suri, Producer, KAHWA Entertainment.

Rezal Rehman, CEO, Pinewood Studios, Malaysia and Uday Singh, Managing Director, Motion Pictures Distributors Association, India took care of the infrastructure aspect of film tourism. He spoke about what it takes to create a simple one-stop window to make the production schedule on filming locations hassle-free for filmmakers. Giving a global perspective, Uday Singhalso educated the participants’ benefits of film production to local state economies.

Deborah Benatar did a session on comparing her shooting experience in Indian and international locations. Deborah hails from France and informed how smooth it is to get permissions to shoot in France or any other European country; whereas in India, all 29 Indian States have a different way to get permissions and it takes over 90 days to sort filming permission in each State.

Iqbal Kidwai spoke about the importance of building a good reputation to foster word-of-mouth publicity in every State. He interacted with every participant at the workshop and explained perception management to each individual.

Being an actor and a producer, Sanjay Suri spoke about creating and building a local workforce to service filming requirements in India. He emphasized on streamlining the process of shooting in India and standardizing the training for skilled professionals in areas that require a workforce.

NFDC India’s Managing Director, Nina Lath Gupta says, “This was the first film tourism workshop organized by NFDC and we are happy with the response. The idea of this workshop was to expose key government functionaries handling this area of work to the dynamics of promoting their regions as a filming destination.”