Uttarakhand hogged the limelight at the recently concluded 65th National Film Awards in New Delhi. The move of the Uttarakhand government to provide extended facilities for film producers won the hill state applause and a special mention certificate for film-friendly environment award in the ceremony.Secretary/Director General Information Pankaj Kumar Pandey said, “With Uttarakhand receiving the prestigious award, it would further promote the shooting of films in the state. Film directors from the country and across the globe will come to the state in large numbers.”

Uttarakhand has become a familiar destination for filmmakers and in the last three years over 100 production houses came to the state for their projects. These days the shooting of Tiger Shroff starrer ‘Student of the Year-2′ is underway in Dehradun and Mussoorie.

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The state government is promoting film shooting in Uttarakhand in a bid to provide employment opportunities at the local level. In a bid to woo filmmakers, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Rawat recently announced a waiving of tax on films which are being made in the state.

The Uttarakhand Film Development Council will be soon starting small duration course related to film making through the Film and Television Institute (Pune).

Since 2015, more than a hundred film producers have shot their feature films, TV serials, documentaries and video albums in the state. Uttarakhand Film Development Council has introduced a single window system for filmmakers and all necessary permissions are provided within a week. Some of the big banner films shot in Uttarakhand include Ajay Devgun productions’ ‘Shivay’, Tigmanshu Dhulia directed ‘Raag Desh’, Telugu film ‘ Brahmutsav’ ,Hindi film “Shubh Mangal Saavdhan’, ‘Bade Bhaiyya Ki Dulhaniya,’ a serial telecast on  Sony television, ‘Piya Albela’ a serial telecast on Zee TV,  ‘Splitsvilla Session 10’ reality show telecast on MTV, Serial ‘Bepanah’ of TC, Marathi film “Furr’, Hindi film ‘ Batti Gul, Meter Challu’, Hindi film ‘ Student of the year-2’, actor John Abraham produced  film ‘Parmanu’ and ‘Total Dhamaal’, to mention a few.