India should now try to become a hub for global content creation, says Anurag Thakur

The regional content must be leveraged and shared worldwide so that global audiences can keep track of the new India’s developments, said Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Singh Thakur.

Delivering the keynote address at the valedictory session of CII Dakshin 2023, a two-day south India media and entertainment summit organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here on Thursday, the minister observed that indeed there was nothing ‘regional’ — if the content is powerful, it becomes national and international.

Thakur said India is already a hub for film post-production works and the country should now try to become a hub for global content creation. “We have everything to become a content creation hub,” he added

Thakur said the Information and Broadcasting Ministry would help the ‘media and entertainment’ sector to achieve $70 billion by 2030 from the present $30 billion. “Digital technologies like OTT, gaming and digital advertising alone have a critical role to play as they are drivers and contributing to this growth,” he added.

The minister also said that the Cinematograph Act 2023, to be taken up in the Parliament in August, would give “a great boost to the film industry in fighting the menace of piracy.”

“As per estimates, the ‘media and entertainment’ sector alone suffers a $2.3 billion revenue loss annually on account of piracy,” Thakur said.

In his special address, Kamal Bali, Chairman, CII Southern Region and President & MD of Volvo Group India, said the media and entertainment industry is fighting to get a formal ‘industry status’, which would help the industry to avail itself of formal loans ( at lower rates).

He added that the film industry is paying local body tax as well as the GST, but the set-off is not available in the GST regime, leading to cascading of taxes.

Ravi Kottarakara, President, South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce placed a set of requests before the Union Minister, such as improving the screen density, increasing the number of screens in smaller towns, and the global positioning of Indian cinemas in new geographies, among others.

The event saw actor and producer Chiranjeevi conferred with ‘The Icon’ award while Tamil actor and producer Dhanush with ‘The Youth Icon’ award.

In his inaugural address, T G Thyagarajan, Chairman, CII Dakshin & Managing Partner, Sathya Jyothi Films, said the two-day summit saw over 80 speakers, including actors, filmmakers, producers and over 1,000 delegates participation. The Hindu BusinessLine