Mumbai: The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) has started reviewing measures to address India's low cinema screen density - a long-standing concern for the film industry, people familiar with the matter said.
Despite being one of the world's largest film producers, India's cinema screen density remains among the lowest globally at just six per million people, compared with 125 in the US and 30 in China.
The country has fewer than 10,000 screens in total, with approximately 9,927 in operation as of 2024, according to the Producers Guild of India.
To address this, the MIB plans to form a dedicated committee with stakeholders from multiple organisations to recommend measures for expanding screen infrastructure across the country, people cited above said.
On August 5, the ministry convened a high-level conference with state and union territory information and public relations (I&PR) secretaries.
The meeting, attended by minister of state for information and broadcasting (I&B) L Murugan and I&B secretary Sanjay Jaju, focused on practical measures such as identifying underserved areas through GIS mapping, repurposing existing public infrastructure, easing approvals with single-window licensing, and creating tax and land policy incentives to draw private investment into affordable cinemas. The matter was again raised on August 11 during a meeting between the Confederation of Indian Industry's (CII) national council on media and entertainment and Jaju.
"The central government is committed to improving screen density and they're doing the heavy lifting here," said Gaurav Banerjee, chairman of CII's national council on M&E.
Despite being one of the world's largest film producers, India's cinema screen density remains among the lowest globally at just six per million people, compared with 125 in the US and 30 in China.
The country has fewer than 10,000 screens in total, with approximately 9,927 in operation as of 2024, according to the Producers Guild of India.
To address this, the MIB plans to form a dedicated committee with stakeholders from multiple organisations to recommend measures for expanding screen infrastructure across the country, people cited above said.
On August 5, the ministry convened a high-level conference with state and union territory information and public relations (I&PR) secretaries.
The meeting, attended by minister of state for information and broadcasting (I&B) L Murugan and I&B secretary Sanjay Jaju, focused on practical measures such as identifying underserved areas through GIS mapping, repurposing existing public infrastructure, easing approvals with single-window licensing, and creating tax and land policy incentives to draw private investment into affordable cinemas. The matter was again raised on August 11 during a meeting between the Confederation of Indian Industry's (CII) national council on media and entertainment and Jaju.
"The central government is committed to improving screen density and they're doing the heavy lifting here," said Gaurav Banerjee, chairman of CII's national council on M&E.
