Georgia has diversified and beautiful landscapes, offering a huge variety of locales to any filmmaker, Ambassador to India Zurab Katchkatchishvili said on Wednesday.
Speaking at an interaction programme on the sidelines of the 41st International Film Festival of India here, he said, “We would like to get more Indian filmmakers to Georgia, making it more appealing than Switzerland.” It is one of the ‘countries in focus' at the IFFI.
Representatives of the Indian industry would visit Georgia before year-end to see the picturesque locales and explore possibilities of co-production.
The Georgian government would provide incentives to filmmakers, especially Indians, who opt for co-production or shoot in Georgia. It was also working on some tax incentives, he said.
Nana Janelidze, film director and script writer, said lack of funding was one of the main reasons why fewer films were being produced in Georgia. Since independence from the Soviet Union some 20 years ago, this small country had produced only 30 movies. It had witnessed three civil wars and a financial crisis.
On average, three movies were produced every year now, mostly co-production. The Ambassador said that in recent years Georgian cinema had been making a comeback. With new financial support from the state as well as private industry, a new generation of talented filmmakers, along with those who stopped making films in the 1990s, was making a mark.
