Goa aims to cash in on Bollywood Boom

 

There was a Bollywood touch to Goa’s celebration of its 50th

anniversary of liberation from 450 years of Portuguese rule Monday with a vision document suggesting construction of hi-tech studios to feed the Mumbai-based film industry.
Vision document ‘Goa 2035′, which the Goa government commissioned to chart out a roadmap for the years ahead, envisioned that the state be developed as a hi-tech satellite feeding Bollywood’s creative economy.
The document, drafted by a committee headed by former Council for Scientific and Industrial Research chief Raghunath Mashelkar, advocated that Goa should take advantage of the creative economy which has been spawned by Bollywood, operating out of Mumbai, about 600 km from here. Goa already is the permanent host of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI).
“This would mean promising stakeholders of Bollywood industry, which includes producers, and technicians who have stakes in information and technology, should be invited to Goa to build hi-tech studios,” Mashelkar said, adding that creative economy would not spell a heavy ecological cost, like the mining or tourism industries in Goa.
“All these industries will build and enhance the clean environment, hence making Goa an ever nicer place to live in,” Mashelkar said.
Ashank Desai, a computer engineer and the promoter of the firm Mastek, said the entire vision document would be released in January and only a skeletal report has been released on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Goa Liberation Day.
Desai said that ‘Goa 2035′ had also recommended that mining in the state be regulated, adding that miners should adhere to global environment standards.
“The mining industry should be incentivised to set examples of environmental sustainability,” the report said.