Cinevesture: What We Learned About Indian Film Finance At CIFF Market

This is very late as I’ve just been very sick with Covid (yes, it’s still out there) but I wanted to summarise the major themes from the ‘Conversations’ section of the recent Cinevesture International Film Festival (CIFF, March 27-31) in Chandigarh, India.

Cinevesture, which comprises the festival, a ‘CIFF Market’ projects market, and an online marketplace, has a focus on producers, investors and connecting projects from creators with a track record to the marketplace. CIFF Market presented 20 projects to potential partners and financiers (see line-up here) and the event also hosted a workshop on the risks and benefits of film investing for curious entrepreneurs, including legal and accounting aspects and international distribution.

The Conversations section of the event included sessions with independent producers, directors, writers, actors, musicians and streamers, and ended with a lively talk with leading producer-director Karan Johar. While the event wasn’t exclusively about indep…