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India Cine Hub, formerly known as the Film Facilitation Office, has established itself as a pivotal institution in fostering international film collaborations, with substantial results to show for its efforts.
Since its inception, the organization has received 104 applications for incentives under official audio-visual co-productions and international films shot in India, with 21 projects having already received incentives and many more in the process of disbursal.
“In the last year, more than INR1000 crore [approximately $118 million] of filmmaking business has come to India,” says says Prithul Kumar, who previously served as managing director of India’s National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) and currently holds the position of joint secretary, broadcasting.
The incentive program, which was substantially enhanced in November 2023 to offer up to $3.6 million per project, has proven to be a significant draw for international productions. Prior to the enhancement, only six projects had applied for incentives in a year and a half’s time.
“We could understand that these incentives would not be enough for pulling the marquee projects,” Kumar explains. “We reworked the whole incentives from the point of view of reworking the caps, but also from the point of view of facilitating and ensuring that these are easy to operate.”
One of the program’s key strengths is its efficiency, with India Cine Hub releasing incentives within 90 working days from date of application for disbursal, making it one of the quickest internationally to release such funds.
Among notable international projects that have received incentives are “Santosh,” a Hindi-language crime drama directed by Sandhya Suri that premiered at the 77th Cannes Film Festival, received a BAFTA nomination, and was selected as the U.K.’s entry for best international feature at the 97th Academy Awards. “Four Years Later,” an eight-part Australian-Indian romance drama created by Mithila Gupta and starring Shahana Goswami, has also benefited from the program.
“Lucca’s World,” originally titled “Los dos hemisferios de Lucca,” a feature film shot in India and Mexico that is currently streaming on Netflix, represents another successful international collaboration. Animation services have also been well-represented among incentive recipients, with projects like “ABC Mouse YouTube Videos” receiving incentives, while popular children’s content like “Cocomelon” and “Dora’s Recipe for Adventure” are currently under disbursal evaluation.
The co-production side has seen similar success, with “All We Imagine as Light” (France-India-Netherlands-Luxembourg-U.S.) making history last year as the first Indian film to compete in the main competition at Cannes since 1994. The film won the Grand Prix at the festival. Other co-productions receiving incentives include “Parikrama” (India-Italy) and “Esther” (Brazil-India).
India currently has co-production treaties with 17 countries, with Colombia being the most recent addition (awaiting ratification). In fiscal year 2023-2024, India Cine Hub received 26 interim applications, a number that more than doubled to 73 applications in 2024-2025.
Beyond incentives, Kumar highlights the importance of the back-end facilitation services offered to international productions. “Apart from the incentives, we have also worked a lot in the back end for their facilitation for shooting or any other work in India,” he says. This includes assistance with foreign visas, railway clearances, and permissions for shooting at archaeological sites.
The revamped India Cine Hub web portal, developed with support from Invest India, offers a one-stop interface for production-related services, incentives, and clearances. “It has become so popular because of its functionality that now even domestic producers are utilizing it to get clearances in India,” Kumar notes. The portal has seen unique monthly active users of 30,000 and analytics from the past two years highlight a doubling of user engagement.
Looking ahead, Kumar mentioned potential collaborations with high-profile international filmmakers. “Sam Mendes is making an anthology on the Beatles,” he notes, addling that they are trying to get him to shoot at least some of the films in India.
The Indian government is also focusing on developing the animation, visual effects, gaming and comics sector through the newly established Indian Institute of Creative Technologies. “The temporary campus will be operational in Mumbai, in the NFDC campus in a month’s time,” Kumar says. “The permanent campus is getting built in a 10-acre area in the Mumbai Film City.”
Kumar also highlighted the growth of India’s film festival presence, with the documentary focused Mumbai International Film Festival attracting over 12,000 delegates from more than 70 countries, a substantial increase from previous years. The International Film Festival of India (IFFI) and market Film Bazaar have similarly seen growth, with Film Bazaar attendance increasing from around 500-600 to 2,000 delegates.
The National Film Development Corporation is also expanding its production slate from two films per year to more than 20. “We have embarked upon more than 20 films production every year,” Kumar says. “Right now, we are sitting on a slate of more than 20 films already ready with us.” This include’s Anupam Kher’s “Tanvi the Great,” which is premiering at the Cannes market.
NFDC is also working to expand distribution channels for Indian content, having onboarded about 1,500 titles onto the Waves streamer of India’s state-owned public broadcaster Prasar Bharati. Plans are also underway to launch a channel called Cinemas of India on Prime Video, which will showcase flagship films, especially archived and restored titles.
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