Indian footprint expands at Toronto International Film Festival

Toronto: As the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) launched its marketplace for content this year, the Indian footprint at the North America’s largest public cinema event has also expanded.

TIFF: The Market, which was announced at its 50th anniversary in 2025, and formally came into being at this year’s edition, has been pitched globally as a venue that “brings together professionals from across film, series, and innovation to buy, sell, finance, pitch, and discover great content”.

While the Bharat Pavilion, the official Indian presence at the festival, has been a fixture for several years, it has been joined this year by content companies like Ramoji Studio and NH Studioz.

As he inaugurated the Bharat Pavilion at TIFF on Monday, India’s High Commissioner to Ottawa Dinesh Patnaik said, “It is important that we are present here in all dimensions, in pre-production, production, post-production, in CGI, VFX, in script writing, screenplays, everything. And tomorrow’s film industry will need a lot of manpower. Even though AI is now becoming a major part of how film production happened, but we still need a lot of manpower. And we have one of the largest trained manpower in the audiovisual industry across the world.”

Those are among the commercial opportunities being pursued by the Hyderabad-headquartered Ramoji Studio, which is showcasing what its executive, Overseas Business, Chandra Pandula described as “the world’s largest comprehensive film facility”.

“It’s the only studio in the world where you fly with a script and fly out with a film,” he said at the booth located within The Market hall at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

With over 50 sound stages, 350 locations spread over 2000 acres, it’s being pitched as a one-stop shop for audiovisual creators. “From pins to planes, we can provide you everything,” he added, as the company also underscored deep discounts as it gives “a better deal than anybody in the world.”

That opportunity to monetise content to new buyers or continue the relationship with existing international partners pulled the Mumbai-based NH Studioz to TIFF, as the company, with a library of nearly 5,000 films, sought licensing across platforms.

Anirudh Bhattacharya is a Toronto-based commentator on North American issues, and an author. He has also worked as a journalist in New Delhi and New York spanning print, television and digital media. He tweets as @anirudhb. Read More