Yes, Documentaries of at least 30 minutes in duration, approved for filming in India by the Ministry of External Affairs, are eligible for incentives. Documentaries that are granted official coproduction status are also eligible for incentives.

Indian Animation, Postproduction and visual effects companies can apply for incentives for such projects undertaken by them in India on behalf of a foreign entity.

Projects which involve only animation, post production and visual effects and visual effects services qualify for the incentives provided they are undertaken in India by an Indian Service Company.

No, Ministry of I&B permission is not required for pure animation, post production and visual effects projects. However, if such projects are part of a coproduction under a bilateral Audio Visual Coproduction Agreement, approval of coproduction status from the Ministry of I&B, Government of India is required for which you have to apply through the FFO portal

No such services do not qualify for the 5% bonus incentive.

Formats for the various declarations to be submitted alongwith applications are given as annexures to the guideline.

Projects that have not applied for or got interim approval are not eligible to apply for incentives.

The timelines for application and processing of approvals are given in clauses prescribing the application process of the extant guidelines.

All services of animation, post production and visual effects undertaken in India qualify for the incentives. However, only expenses specific to the project incurred for and paid by the international agency can be claimed as Qualifying Production Expenses.

The minimum QPE requirements are laid out in clause 3.4 of the guidelines for production of foreign films. There are no minimum QPE requirements for official coproductions.

At the stage of obtaining permission for filming in India, the script of the project is evaluated by the Script Evaluation Officer (SEO). They may recommend, while clearing the script, that the final film may be shown to an Indian Government representative for No Objection Certificate (NOC) so that there is no deviation from the submitted script. The Indian Government representative would normally be an officer of an Indian Mission (Embassy/High Commission/Consulate) abroad. This requirement would be mentioned in the approval letter given by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. In order to get the NOC from the Indian Mission, the producer may approach the FFO and the FFO will forward the same to the concerned Mission. However, in the case of documentaries, NOC has to be obtained by the producer directly from the Indian Mission that has granted them permission for filming of the documentary.

The incentives scheme is primarily for new projects and therefore post release post production work (dubbing, etc.) would normally not be eligible.

As such projects do not go through a script evaluation process as in the case of live shoots, this requirement is for the FFO to have an idea about the kind of project. Description of production is required. In the absence of a full script, a logline/synopsis may be provid

One project can apply for incentives only once and all costs incurred in production including post production are to be included in the application.

The date of grant of permission for filming in India by Ministry of I&B or Ministry of External Affairs (in the case of documentaries) would be considered. In the case of incentives for pure post production, animation or visual effects services, expenses incurred from the date of submission of form for interim approval of incentive to the FFO would be considered.

The guidelines specify that Feature Films should be of at least 72 Minutes duration and documentaries at least 30 minutes duration in order to be eligible to apply for incentives

FFO will issue an Interim Approval Certificate which will be valid for a period of 12 months, for the purpose of Final Application. In case of projects that have a QPE of INR 200 Million/ Rs 20 Crore or more, the validity of the Interim Approval Certificate will be 24 months. However, if there are changes in schedule that require extension of validity of the Interim Approval certificate, the same may be intimated and in such cases, a fresh application would need to be made.

The list of inclusions and exclusions in QPE are specified in clauses 3.4 and 4.4.

The meetings of the SIEC can be called by the chairman of the committee on a need basis and there are no regular dates for the meeting.

As soon as the decision of the SIEC is approved by Managing Director, NFDC the same including the amount of incentive approved is conveyed to the applicant.

The decision of the Committee is final and shall not be challenged in any Court of Law.