Cinema is an integral part of the Indian landscape and thus, promoting the right content and pushing the creative envelope has always been the priority of the authorities involved in the development of the entertainment industry. Thus, India’s National Film Development Corporation’s (NFDC) Film Bazaar market took the initiative of expanding into series development, which attracted several creative registrations ahead of its 2024 edition, running alongside the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa.
Prithul Kumar, managing director of NFDC and joint secretary at India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting mentioned that the response to the expansion was overwhelmingly positive. He told Variety that they received about 50-odd applications for the series.
This year’s edition is all the more special with big names coming together. Jerome Paillard, who previously headed the Cannes Film Market has donned the hat of an advisor for this year’s edition. Jerome contributed a lot this year as he had a say on mentors, juries, and the guest list of important distributors, marketing agents, and producers coming from across the world.
“His experience of Cannes really helps, his relationships of getting the right people to the market and curating the projects in the right way is one of the biggest highlights this year,” shared Prithul.
At the same time, producers from India’s regional film industry are also coming together. Prithul said that Indian content is traveling worldwide. Producers now have the freedom to negotiate deals for their existing projects to be marketed or distributed across the world.
The NFDC chief also highlighted India’s co-production incentive of INR 300 million ($3.5 million) per project with 17 treaty countries.
And the list of great things doesn’t end here. Film Bazaar’s popular Knowledge Series panels and Cannes’ Christian Jeune will feature sessions on festival strategy, streaming content acquisition, and AI in filmmaking. Further, the Indian Debut Director award, which is a new section included in IFFI this year has received 100 submissions.
“Out of six films selected for works-in-progress [at the Film Bazaar], five are from first-time filmmakers,” said Kumar.
