“Our regional content must be leveraged and shared worldwide so that the global audiences can keep track of the developments of the new India,” Union Information and Broadcasting minister Anurag Singh Thakur said here on Thursday. 

He was 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). 

Thakur, who is also the union minister for Youth Affairs and Sports, said there is nothing called “regional”; if the content is powerful, it immediately becomes national and international. 

The Union minister 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. 

Critical role

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

The Union minister also informed that the Cinematograph Act 2023 will be brought in the upcoming Parliamentary session in August and it will be a great boost to the film industry in fighting the menace of film piracy. 

“As per estimates, the media and entertainment sector alone is suffering a revenue loss of $2.3 billion annually on account of piracy,” Thakur highlighted. 

Set of requests

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 will help the industry to avail formal loans at lower rates.

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

Ravi Kottarakara, President, the South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce, made requests to the Union minister including 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 also saw actor and producer Chiranjeevi conferred with ‘The Icon’ award while Tamil actor and producer Dhanush was conferred 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, film makers, producers across South Indian film industry and over 1,000 delegates. 

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