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| Filmmaker Shyam Benegal with chief minister D.D. Lapang in Shillong on Thursday. A Telegraph picture |
Shillong, Feb. 7 : Meghalaya could become the next hot destination for filmmakers if only it could provide the necessary infrastructure.
The members of the state task force for promoting Meghalaya as a film destination, who met for the first time today, expressed concern over the lack of basic facilities for filmmakers to shoot films in Shillong.
The task force was constituted by the state government on November 24 last year.
Well-known filmmaker Shyam Benegal, who is a member of the task force, told the meeting that Meghalaya should explore ways and means to provide more infrastructure facilities and incentives to attract people from the film industry to Shillong.
Benegal said if the government did not improve infrastructure facilities and provide incentives, it would be difficult for filmmakers to come to Shillong to shoot films.
The commissioner and secretary of industries, Arindam Som, who attended the meeting, admitted that Meghalaya lacked the basic infrastructure, including accommodation and transportation.
“We do not have enough hotels to accommodate a big team of film producers,” Som said, adding that Meghalaya also lacked transport facilities.
The task force has decided to form a sub-committee to formulate within a month a policy that can help local service providers to construct more hotels and other infrastructure facilities.
The task force will hold its next meeting after the committee submits its report.
Creating a website, which would project Meghalaya as a film destination, is also on the cards.
Benegal, who arrived here yesterday, met chief minister D.D. Lapang to discuss the possibilities of film shooting in Shillong.
Lapang had met Tito Juneja, the producer of Har Pal, a film partially shot in Shillong, on December 13 last year, to explore the entry of Bollywood into the city known as the Scotland of the East.