Cannes: I&B Minister Anurag Thakur meets MPA chairman, pitches for 75 Indian creative minds enhancing skills with American studios

By Payal Mehta
Cannes [France], May 17 : Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur, who is leading the Indian delegation to Cannes Film Festival 2022, on Tuesday met Charles H Rivkin, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Motion Picture Association of America (MPA).
The meeting, which happened on the sidelines of the Cannes Film Festival, lasted for nearly an hour. The minister pitched for 75 Indian creative minds enhancing skills with MPA, which represents major US film studios.
Anurag Thakur exclusively told ANI that the government is keen to make India the content hub of the world and he spoke of the concerned issues with Rivkin.
"We spoke on three major issues at this meeting. We are looking at making India the content hub of the world. Also, we would like to see if maximum content can be created out of India whether it is shooting post-production, scripting and special effects," the minister told ANI.
"We are also working on having more and more business to business associations with MPA Just like we had done at IFFI last year, we are now pitching the idea that 75 Young creative minds would get more and more exposure with MPA whether it is creative teams or start-ups for enhancing their scripting and other creative skills," he added.
Rivkin termed the meeting with the union minister as extremely productive.
"This is the first time that such a proposal has been made and I will speak to the MPA and I hope more can be done to take our association forward," Rivkin told ANI.
India has been named a "country of honour" at Cannes this year.
"We are overwhelmed with the opportunities in the Indian market. And all our six member studios are looking forward to this deeper association. Our member studios are already making a lot of films in India but we are looking at exploring more opportunities and possible co-productions and take this association further so that it benefits both countries," said Rivkin, who leads the MPA's global mission to advance and support the film, television, and streaming content industry.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed happiness on India's participation as 'Country of Honour' at the Cannes Film festival this year.
In a message, he noted that India's participation comes at the momentous meeting of celebration of 75 years of India's independence, 75th anniversary of Cannes Film Festival and 75 years of diplomatic relations between India and France.
Emphasising India's commitment to improve ease of doing business in the film sector, PM Modi said that from facilitating international film-coproduction to ensuring single window clearance mechanism for permissions for filming across the country, India offers seamless possibilities to filmmakers of the world.
This government had last year taken a novel initiative under the aegis of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav to encourage and recognise young creative minds and budding talents in the country. For the first time ever, 75 creative minds representing gen next cinema were picked to attend the 52nd International Film Festival of India in Goa.