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The United Kingdom and Germany have shown keen interest in financing projects of the Indian film industry.
About pounds 10 million is expected to flow into India from the UK Film Council in the next 5 to 6 months, through co-productions in films of Indian origin.
InvestitionsBank Hessen AG, a German bank, which funds Hollywood projects worth pound three billion every year, is also looking at closing two deals in India soon.
"Both Germany and UK enjoy tax benefits through funding riskier projects like films and most of Hollywood films are funded in Europe.
"Now they are looking at the Indian industry and we could expect a lot more financing to come in soon, especially from Germany as most Hollywood projects are financed by Germany," said S K Jiwarajka, chairman, FICCI Western Regional Council.
The UK Film Council was present at FRAMES 2003, a convention on the business of entertainment and has, hence, expressed inclination to co-produce films.
Although the details of the funding are unavailable currently, they are expected to be finalised in a month, added Jiwarajka.
Speaking to Business Standard on the sidelines of the second India-Asean summit, Sudip Malhotra, head-India representative office, InvestitionsBank Hessen AG, said, "We are meeting directors and would be very keen to finance a lot more films in India than what we are looking at currently, but we are not finding the level of transparency that we expect in terms of returns as all transactions are in cash."
While the two projects that expect to receive funding from the bank could be partly financed, Malhotra added that if the complete film is shot, and produced in Germany, the bank would be eager to produce it completely.
Meanwhile, the Industrial Development Bank of India has approved 4 proposals in the first five months of this financial year.
"We have about 8 projects on hand currently and about 3-4 of them should be cleared," said Viney Kumar, general manager, IDBI.
Spreading the canvas wide