NEW DELHI: India and Spain have signed an agreement which among other things provides opportunities for both the countries to pool their creative, artistic, technical, financial and marketing resources to co-produce films.

The Audio visual Co-production Agreement has been signed to improve cooperation between the two countries in this sector. The agreement was signed between Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni and Jose Garcia Margallo Y. Marfil, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Kingdom of Spain.

The agreement establishes a legal framework for relations regarding cooperation between the two countries in the audio visual field thereby facilitating the development of the audio visual industry. The framework for co production includes feature films, documentary and animation films.

The co-production would provide an opportunity to create and showcase ‘soft power’ of our country. It would also lead to generation of employment among artistic, technical as well as non-technical personnel engaged in the arena of film production including post-production and its marketing, thus adding to the country’s GDP. The utilisation of Indian locales for shooting raises the visibility/ prospects of India as a preferred film shooting destination across the globe. It will also lead to inflow of foreign exchange into the country and transparent funding of film production.

Currently, as part of the initiative, the Government has signed co-production agreements with Italy (2005), the United Kingdom (2005), Germany (2007), Brazil (2007), France (2010), and New Zealand (2011).