The vast expanse of opportunity that exists if India and Spain manage to increase and improve their film and TV industry co-operation was on display at a panel session on Sunday at Film Bazaar.
“If you explained the incentives, people would be flocking [to Spain] to produce,” said leading Indian producer Nikhil Advani. He cited similar examples including Estonia and the Middle East where Indian films have been made with subsidies and location incentives. “Yash Raj Films has even gone there and used Spain as a location, not for the incentives,” he added.
In that Advani echoed Juan Manuel Guimerans Rubio, president of Spain’s Film Commission. “Our first task is to raise awareness [of the opportunities],” he said and admitted. “There are more obvious partners.”
Indeed, the two countries signed a bilateral co-production treaty as far back as 2012, but which has only been used for one film to date, the Anna Saura and Bobby Bedi-produced “Mudras,” a tale of dancers from different generations, which is now in post-production.
“I was surprised that my film is the first co-production between the two countries,” said Saura. “Everything was easy and professional. Production planning and bureaucracy systems of the two countries were similar.”
Neerja Sekhar, from the IAS and special secretary at India’s Ministry of Information & Broadcasting explained that the treaty had lain unused for ten years as India only put its incentives system into place in 2022. “We have started talking about [mutual] distribution and incentives,” she said.
Spain has location production incentives of 30%, regional incentives in parts of the country including the Canary Islands, and others that cover animation.
Camilo Vazquez Bello, deputy Director General of promotions and international relations at Spain’s ICAA, said, “We want to reinforce already excellent relations. Next year’s focus [for ICAA] is Asia. We need to update the current bilateral agreement between Spain and India, improve the legal framework. And we need to promote Spanish films into Indian festivals.” Ten have been selected for the International Film Festival of India, which sits alongside Film Bazaar.
Bedi said it was important to find stories that speak to genuine cross-border connections, not just to focus on incentives and production finance. But others were keen to point out that Spain can be used as a means to “triangulate” or access the wider European Union soft money system and the 600 million population of the wider Spanish-speaking world.
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