“It’s an encouraging first step, especially as there was nothing available on a national level before,” says Dileep Singh Rathore of production services company On The Road India, which handled Tenet’s Mumbai shoot before the pandemic. Disbursement is 85% after a “successful evaluation and audit” with the remaining 15% paid out when the FFO receives a competed copy of the film. Before shooting starts, they can apply for an “interim approval certificate”, then apply for final approval within 90 days of wrapping. The applicant must be an India-based production services company responsible for all production-related expenditure on behalf of the international producer. There is no minimum spend for documentaries or films recognized as official co-productions under one of India’s 15 treaties. To be eligible, productions must first be approved to shoot in India by the I&B Ministry, then spend a minimum INR25m ($325,000) in the country. An additional 5% is available, up to a maximum of INR5m ($65,000), for productions employing more than 15% or more Indian crew. Managed by India’s Film Facilitation Office (FFO), the incentive will reimburse up to 30% of qualifying production expenditure (QPE) up to a maximum of INR20m ($260,000). At this year’s Cannes film festival, India’s Information & Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry finally announced the country’s long-awaited incentive scheme, offering a 30% cash rebate for international productions either shooting or conducting post-production in India. Now Covid is under control and the population vaccinated, India is back open and ready for business, but this time with a few sweeteners. The fifth Indiana Jones film was already deep into prepping in Rajasthan when the second wave hit, forcing the production to do an about turn and move to Morocco. Shantaram, starring Charlie Hunnam as an Australian prison escapee hiding in a Mumbai slum, opted to move to Thailand in mid-2021, after shooting briefly in India in late 2020, due to the worsening Covid situation. That outbreak hit more than one production.

It had a disruptive although mostly manageable first wave of Covid in 2020, which nonetheless deterred some international shoots, before shocking the world with a devastating second wave and massive death toll that erupted in March/April 2021. International Insider: Indian Incentive Under Korean Management On Location In Locarno Johnny Depp As Louisīut the country has been pretty much off limits during the pandemic.

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