PANAJI
Nearly 11 months after announcing a revisionof the Goa Film Finance Scheme (FFS), Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Wednesdayreiterated the government's plan to revive and revise the scheme, whileassuring that pending sanctioned financial assistance would be released withinthe next 8 to 10 days, ahead of the 57th International Film Festival of India(IFFI).
Addressing a press conference after chairingthe 20th governing body meeting of the Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG),Sawant said the scheme would be revived after taking all stakeholders intoconfidence.
“The scheme will be revived taking allstakeholders into confidence,” he said, adding that the meeting also reviewedpreparations for IFFI.
The assurance comes nearly a year after theChief Minister had announced plans to revise the scheme. In January this year,the government had notified that films produced after December 31, 2025, wouldbe governed by a revised scheme, while the Goa Scheme of Financial Assistancefor Films–2016 would remain applicable only to films produced up to that date.
First launched in 2011 by the then ChiefMinister Digambar Kamat, the scheme provided financial assistance of up to Rs25 lakh. It was subsequently revived in November 2016 during the LaxmikantParsekar-led government, before being discontinued by the Pramod Sawantgovernment in 2017.
The scheme was designed to support Goanproducers making feature films in Konkani and Marathi, and non-feature films,including short films and documentaries, in Konkani, Marathi, English andHindi. Nine Goan films benefited from the scheme between 2011 and 2015, whileanother eight received assistance during 2016 and 2017.
Under the 2016 scheme, feature films inKonkani and Marathi were eligible for assistance of Rs 50 lakh, Rs 30 lakh andRs 10 lakh under A, B and C categories respectively, or 50 per cent of theproduction cost, whichever was lower.
For non-feature films, the correspondingassistance was Rs 10 lakh, Rs 5 lakh and Rs 3 lakh, subject to the 50 per centexpenditure ceiling.
