Satish Sharma, former member of Uttarakhand Film Development Board, has urged the Uttarakhand government to extend the benefits of the state film policy to web series and to films releasing on OTT platforms. He met Uttarakhand chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat on 10th July and submitted a memorandum on behalf of filmmakers interested in shooting their films or web series in the state.
He told the chief minister that a lot of producers were keen on producing web series for different OTT platforms and wanted the government to extend the film policy to web series too. He also explained that because cinemas are currently shut down due to the coronavirus lockdown, several films were being premiered on OTT platforms. He requested the chief minister to grant subsidy to such films also. Currently, films premiered on OTT platforms are excluded as the subsidy is payable only to films released theatrically. Web series are also not eligible to any subsidy as it is limited to films only. Satish Sharma told Rawat that producers have also demanded that the subsidy amount be increased from Rs. 1.5 crore to Rs. 2 crore in view of the increasing cost of production of films.