Government has taken initiatives to formulate and incorporate new guidelines for making movies jointly with India.
The move has been welcomed by the Indian Bengali language film industry, nicknamed Tollywood.
Since November last year, the Bangladesh government had decided to keep on hold the work of preview committee that approves scripts of joint productions and previews of movies before their release.
Tollywood is now breathing easy, hoping that this step will help increase the market size of Bengali cinema.
In November last year, Information minister Hasanul Haq Inu had said that the work of the preview committee that oversees scripts of co-productions and previews movies before release have been kept on hold.
"We are forming a new committee. The director general of Bangladesh television SM Harun-ur-Rashid will be a part of the committee along with other stake holders.
We are waiting for the committee to formulate guidelines. Till the review of the policy is done, the preview committee has been asked to keep its decisions on hold," Inu had said.
"They will be immensely beneficial for the local industries of both countries. We have tried to simplify the process and are hoping it will help provide content to the 35 crore Bengali population spread across the world," he said in Kolkata.
Among the various new guidelines, permission can be sought to bring modern equipment from other countries while shooting joint ventures in Bangladesh.
A production house can't apply for review of a completed film within 30 days of getting a nod from the Bangladesh Film Development Corporation and ministry of information.
The maximum duration of submission is nine months to a year. A director from a third country can also be roped in to do a co-production.
However, if a foreign producer doesn't adhere to these guidelines, he/she will not get permission for doing joint ventures in Bangladesh.
Earlier there was a strong demarcation that there has to be a 50:50 ratio in hiring artistes, technicians and locations, reports The Times of India.
