Thiruvananthapuram: International film professionals participating in the ongoing International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) 2015, have offered incentives for Indian productions in their respective countries.
The guests also highlighted a raft of benefits, including filmmaker-friendly infrastructure and favourable exchange rates.
This set off heated discussions among domestic filmmakers at IFFK venues on Monday about shooting their future projects in foreign nations.
Representatives of the tourism and culture boards of Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka, France and Latin American nations promptly came up with initiatives for promoting foreign productions.
"In Sri Lanka, the government and film corporations support foreign production with incentives. As the film industry is developing in our nation, we are not yet able to support the foreign film making with modern equipments," said 'Dirty, Yellow, Darkness' director Kalpana Ariyawansa.
"But we do have a quality domestic support structure for shooting a movie," she said. Aikyn Kalykov, of Kazakh film 'Bopem Fame', said the situation was similar in his country also. "Foreign film production is on rise in Kazakhstan, giving youngsters an opportunity to find good movie works," he said.
Meanwhile in France, the National Centre for Cinematography has introduced the incentive, 'Tax Rebate for International Production' (TRIP), encouraging films to shoot wholly or partly in France.
"Such steps cushion the filmmakers efforts to shoot a movie or at least a scene in France. However, the only demand is the project should include elements related to French or European culture, heritage and territory," said Laurent Lariviere, who directed the French-Belgian production 'I Am A Soldier'.
Apart from these countries, Australia, Columbia, Ireland, Malaysia, Canada, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and some European nations have most attractive offers for foreign productions.
"Even though we are aware of some of the schemes provided by foreign nations in film production, the interaction with foreign filmmakers has given us more idea," said Malayalam director Kamal.
"This will surely prompt us for shooting appropriate future projects there," the award-winning filmmaker added.