The Italian Minister
of Culture, Mr. Giuliano Urbani called on the Minister of Information
and Broadcasting, Smt. Sushma Swaraj here today. The two Ministers
discussed cooperation between the two countries in the co-production
and exchange of films, exchange of faculty and personnel in film
institutes for training and technical know-how, exchange of television
programmes, greater participation of India in Venice Film Festival
and of Italy in India International Film Festival.
Mr. Giuliano
said that Italians had been great admirers of Indian Cinema and
there was excellent exchange of films. He said this had been an
individual basis and he wanted it to be expanded on a much greater
scale and dimension. He said a large network of cinema halls being
set up by Italy can be utilised by Indian producers. The Italian
Minister is also meeting representatives of Indian Film Industry
in Mumbai and discuss the expansion of cooperation at the industry
level.
Smt. Sushma Swaraj
said Indian expertise in IT might be useful to Italian producers
for animation films. The TV programmes, especially from the archives
of Doordarshan and the public broadcaster of Italy can be exchanged
to make the citizens of both the countries more aware about the
culture and art of the two great civilisations. The possibility
of arriving at an agreement on co-production of films may also
be explored, Smt. Swaraj said.
