Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 1 (IANS) In what’s billed as a first of its kind in the country, the Kerala government is working to formulate a policy for the Malayalam film industry. As part of this exercise, the state government will hold a two-day conclave in the capital city.

State Minister of Films and Culture Saji Cherian has been working overtime to help formulate a comprehensive film policy for the Malayalam film industry, which he said will be path-breaking..

In a conversation with IANS, Minister Cherian said he has been working on it for a while and starting Saturday, he will be leading the Film Conclave.

“All the leading lights in the Malayalam film industry will be present, representing the various film bodies. Besides, we are getting guests from film organisations in the country. More importantly, there are 10 personalities representing the World cinema,” said Cherian.

“The main purpose of this conclave is to formulate a full-fledged film policy for Kerala, which will be a path-breaking one for others to follow suit,” added Cherian.

Spread over two days, there will be nine sessions where deliberations will take place, and Cherian expects that by the end of the event, a new film policy will be formulated.

“Just as Kerala has an Industrial Policy, those in the film industry want a Kerala Film Policy,” he said.

“See, at the moment, there is little coordination between the various government departments. Those making a film — from start to finish — have to knock on several doors of the state departments to get things moving. One of the aims in the policy is a single window for making film production an easy task,” added Cherian.

“Among the other areas which will be deliberated are the tax regime, rules for electricity, shooting locations, identifying new locations, to prevent exploitations, if there are any, when it comes to remunerations of those involved in the film production, getting sanctions and all such items. Another aim for the conclave is to ensure Kerala, with its huge natural beauty, gets a proper promotion, which will enable pan India films to be shot in Kerala. For that, we will list out new locations and also ensure there is proper infrastructure at all shooting locations. We will prepare a directory of each and every place that is identified as a possible location and publish it. Every aspect of the location will be listed out,” added Cherian.

Among those who will be taking part in the conclave are Mohanlal, Suhasini, Priyadarshan, Maneka Suresh and numerous other leading lights in the film industry.

The Kerala Film Policy Conclave, as part of the framing of a policy for the Malayalam film industry, will witness the participation of over 500 delegates from all over the world and will have nine plenary sessions covering all aspects of the film industry.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will inaugurate the conclave at the Sankaranarayanan Thampi Hall inside the Legislative Assembly complex in Thiruvananthapuram on August 2

–IANS

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