Recently released feature film Life of Pi has been given two National Tourism Awards by the Indian Ministry of Tourism, recognizing the impact it has had in promoting India as a tourism destination, especially Puducherry and Munnar (Kerala).
Making this announcement in Delhi recently, Union Tourism Minister Chiranjeevi said these awards would be given to Ang Lee, director of the film Life of Pi and Yann Martel, writer of the book of the same name. The Minister expressed the hope that this will go a long way in encouraging more and more fi lm producers from abroad to shoot their films in India.
Every year, the Ministry of Tourism recognizes various stakeholders, including film makers and writers for their contribution in promoting India Tourism by conferring National Tourism Awards. In February this year, the Ministry of Tourism signed a MoU with Ministry of Information & Broadcasting as a major initiative to promote the ‘Incredible India’ campaign and Cinemas of India as a sub brand of ‘Incredible India’ at various international film festivals and markets abroad.
The MoU is expected to enhance the reach of ‘Incredible India’ through the Medium of Cinema, develop synergy between tourism and fi lm industry and provide a platform for enabling partnerships between the Indian and global film industry.
The joint participation of the two Ministries would cover the Cannes Film Festival and Market, IFFI Goa including the Film Festival and Film Bazaar and European Film Market at Berlin.
It is expected that this innovative partnership will facilitate the promotion of India as a filming destination for foreign producers. 21 and 20 permissions for shooting in India were granted during 2010-11 and 2011-12.