From left: Bollywood film director, Anubhav Sinha, Financial Intelligence Unit director, Razim Buksh and Mindpearl general manager Mark Mahoney during a panel discussion at the 41st Fiji Institute of Accountants Congress at the Sheraton Fiji Resort on Denarau Island in Nadi yesterday. Photo: WAISEA NASOKIA
Points ways of making Fiji more lucrative
By JYOTI PRATIBHA
Over the past few years, Fiji has been providing the most lucrative tax concessions for film makers to shoot film here.
Top Bollywood director, Anubhav Sinha, who was the brains behind high grossing movies like Ra One and Tum Bin said Fiji is his number one choice currently for film production.
His movie ‘Warning’ which was shot in Fiji is due to release in September this year.
Speaking at the 41st congress of the Fiji Institute of Accountants, Mr Sinha said Fiji continued to provide lucrative options for film production.
However, Mr Sinha also pointed out that Fiji should not be complacent.
He pointed out that many locations such as Mauritius, Switzerland, Cape Town and neighbours Australia and New Zealand had a ‘flirtatious’ relationship with Bollywood without any long term commitment.
He said these countries at some stage became obsolete locales for film shooting and newer options had been sought.
Suggestions for long-term
For Fiji to avoid this and to be able to have concrete commitment of long term relationship with Bollywood, Mr Sinha said a few essential things needed to be taken into account.
He said during the shooting of his movie ‘Warning’, he had to bring all equipment from India- from basic lights to more advanced cameras.
Mr Sinha said if Fiji was to be able to provide film makers with some of the basic equipment, it would be one less thing for producers to worry about.
One-stop centre concept
He further pointed there needed to be one-stop centre where film producers and those intending to shoot their movies in Fiji could go to for further information and clarification.
He said a lot of time was spent by them to explain what they needed to do while shooting a movie.
“An educated window where all film related questions can be answered to start with would be appreciated,” he said.
“By the time we finish explaining why we would need to close off a street for shooting, we would already have moved on to the next location for easy filming.”
Mr Sinha also pointed that having people experienced in the film making industry readily available in Fiji would give a further advantage and at the same time provide temporary employment to locals.
“A facility which would act as a post-production area for film makers would also give Fiji an edge over others,” he said.
Tourism marketing
Mr Sinha said when movies which are shot in Fiji are released in India, that particular time could be used by the Tourism Ministry to market Fiji to Indians as a holiday destination.
In terms of equipment, Mr Sinha said many of the basic equipment were already available in Australia, an option that Fiji could explore.
He said at least 22 hours had taken to fly from India to Fiji, with a stopover in Hong Kong.
Mr Sinha said introduction of shorter route would also be advantageous.
Mr Sinha attended the Congress as a speaker on the invitation of Film Fiji acting chief executive Florence Swamy.