FICCI Frames 2020: Commerce minister Piyush Goyal wants India to be global leader in cinema

The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, popularly known by its abbreviation FICCI, has been organizing the FICCI Frames convention, where people from the media and entertainment industries come together to discuss important matters, since 2001.

This year, FICCI Frames is being held online because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Named E-Frames 2020, the five-day convention ended on Saturday 11 July.

At the event, Piyush Goyal, Union minister for commerce, industry and railways, spoke of India becoming a global leader in the film business. “There is no reason why we can’t produce good English films," the minister said. "We can talk to other countries to get benefits and remove bottlenecks faced by the Indian film industry. We must look at — can India become the provider of creativity and advertising to the whole world?”

Goyal also spoke of creating a plan for single-window clearance to make films in India. “I will talk to the states to see how we can shoot more films in India,” he said. “FICCI and the film industry could help us devise a mechanism for single-window clearance for shooting films in India. If all stakeholders come together, we can surely make it easier to do business in India.”

Producer Siddharth Roy Kapur, also one of the speakers at the event, highlighted how indoor content has grown during the COVID-19 lockdown. “Viewership of TV channels and OTT platforms has gone up considerably and by any conceivable measure you can see that people want to be entertained and that is not something a global pandemic, however dire, can take away," he said. "So, in a way we can be thankful that in the media and entertainment business, the sun will never set.”