UK woos Indian film crews

After Australia and New Zealand it is now the turn of Britain to woo the Indian film industry.

The country, which has over two million Asian origin population and a major market for Bollywood films is looking for strategic alliances with the domestic production houses and directors for multi locational and multi lingual flicks.

"Many areas of collaboration is possible between two countries viz. co-production. Even though there is no formal treaty between government of India and the UK, it has not come in the way of Indo-UK co-production films. According to figures from British Film Institute, 102 UK co-productions were made in 2003," Andrew Hall, British Deputy High Commissioner in Kolkata said.

While inaugurating the Film Mart during 10th Kolkata Film Festival at Nandan, Hall said opportunities lie also in post production. Already some British companies are outsourcing such work from India. He mentioned that Leicester with huge Indian population offered a ready made package for Indian film producers who can get physical support in terms of facilities, crew, locations and cast.

While Hall was hardselling UK in India, Confederation of Indian Industry was trying to make a sale pitch for Bengali film. The film mart is second attempt by CII along with East India Motion Pictures Association and government of West Bengal.

The market will give local film producers a chance to showcase their products for domestic as well as overseas buyers. Even though producers take space on rent in any such film markets across the globe CII is offering it for free.

Last year only one film was sold in the fair but CII officials are hopeful that there will be more business during this season.

"There was little awareness about organised retail of Bengali film here. So CII took a step forward. This year, producers are far more ready with the software," Sanjay Budhia, chairman of CII's national committee on export, said. The film mart is being sponsored by Patton Industry.