MUMBAI: After several years of co-productions and joint investments, the two most prominent global film industries - Hollywood and Bollywood signed a historic declaration between the city of Los Angeles and the Indian film industry at Paramount Pictures in Hollywood. The two parties also supported the creation of the Los Angeles-India Film Council to increase Indian film production in Los Angeles.
As part of the declaration, the city of Los Angeles and the Indian film industry, represented by the Film and Television Producers Guild of India and the Film Federation of India, agree to develop and strengthen motion picture production, distribution, technology, content protection and commercial cooperation between the two filmmaking communities.
Speaking at the event, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said, "This declaration reinforces our city‘s commitment to attracting international production. During the year, we have already seen Hindi movies such as My Name is Khan and Kites filmed in Los Angeles and we enthusiastically welcome further Indian production in Los Angeles."
Mayor Villaraigosa was joined by California Film Commissioner Amy Lemisch, Paramount Pictures CEO Brad Grey, Motion Picture Association Asia Pacific President Mike Ellis and Motion Picture Association India Managing Director Rajiv Dalal along with Bobby Bedi, L. Suresh and representatives from Reliance Big Entertainment and UTV Motion Pictures who represented the Hindi film industry.
Commented Motion Pictures Association India managing director, Rajiv Dalal, "More than 2.4 million people in America and 1.8 million people in India work in the motion picture and television industry. We look forward to continued commercial cooperation with the U.S. film industry on joint investment and co-productions, which will only increase economic development and job growth in both nations."
This is the second major step towards economic development and cooperation between Hollywood and the Indian film industry this year.
In March, the two industries came together in Mumbai to launch the Alliance Against Copyright Theft (AACT), a Bollywood-Hollywood content protection coalition in India.
