Key throws door open to Bollywood

Prime Minister John Key has thrown open the door to Bollywood, with a new deal for greater cooperation between the New Zealand and Indian film industries.

Mr Key and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh witnessed the signing of the Film Cooperation Agreement, as well as a deal to extend education cooperation, following formal talks today (overnight NZ time).

The film agreement, which was negotiated by New Zealand’s Ministry for Culture and Heritage and India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, aims to enhance screen co-investment, joint creative input, and film crew interaction.

“India is a rapidly rising player in the region, and we want to build on our already strong cultural and economic ties,” Mr Key said.

A number of Bollywood films have been partly shot in New Zealand, and Mr Key said he hoped stronger ties between the two countries would encourage future projects there.

“If you think about it they make about three times as many movies as the Americans make so I think it’s a massive market,” Mr Key told media.

“The other spin off of that is it really introduces the Indian population to New Zealand from a tourism perspective.

“They’ve been doing a lot of filming down in Queenstown, they’re very well known down there, and that scenery has got to be whetting the appetite of a lot of Indian travellers to come down to New Zealand.”

The Prime Ministerial Education Initiative, a jointly-funded $NZ1 million programme, aims to enhance cooperation between the countries in higher education, research and skills development.

“New Zealand’s education relationship with India has gone well beyond just student recruitment,” Mr Key said.

”This initiative aims to strengthen that relationship even further and increase academic links between our countries and open up opportunities to collaborate on education services.”

As part of the agreement, an Education Council would be established, which Mr Key said would help India to bring together a range of education and skills-development funding agencies and provide New Zealand with a one-stop-shop to deal with.

This will promote a close and collaborative government relationship and foster more involvement by our respective sectore,” Mr Key said.

“I look forward to seeing the council becoming a flagship of the relationship between our two countries.”

Mr Key arrived in India on Sunday for three days of bilateral talks, and activities aimed at strengthening ties between New Zealand and India.

He heads for Mumbai this afternoon, where he will visit Film City to see the set of The Players, a Bollywood production that has already filmed in New Zealand.