INDIA AND UK DISCUSS COOPERATION IN FILM PRODUCTION
The United Kingdom
Secretary of State for Media, Culture and Sports, Ms. Tessa Jowell,
called on the Minister of Information & Broadcasting, Shri
Ravi Shankar Prasad here today and discussed various issues of
mutual interest. Both the Ministers agreed to make a coordinated
effort to meet the serious challenge of film and music piracy,
which has posed a serious threat to the two industries. Shri Prasad
informed Ms. Jowell that amendments to the Copyright Act and an
optical Disc Law are being considered and as a first step to check
piracy the excise duty on pre-recorded CDs has been reduced. He
said, the fast changes in technology make it very difficult to
implement the law.
The Ministers discussed
the reciprocation in the field of film production and having a
co-production agreement. Shri Prasad said that his Ministry would
take all possible steps to remove any impediments in the production
of films by British producers in India and vice versa. He said
the British film industry can draw upon the Indian professionals’
capabilities in the field of IT and animation film production.
A lot of post-production and other works can be outsourced to
India by British producers to cut on their costs. At present,
India is exporting animation software worth over 100 million US
dollar annually. Similarly, Indian producers can benefit from
the technological advancements in the field, he said.
Shri Prasad appreciated
the BBC help in the implementation of the AIDS awareness programme
on Doordarshan, which has become very popular with the audiences
and is proposed to be extended for one more year. He also thanked
BBC for helping DD for training a team of newscasters. He sought
UK’s cooperation in the distribution of DD programmes in UK for
the benefit of Indian diaspora.
