India has become the 54th country to sign an audiovisual coproduction treaty with Canada after a first-time agreement came into effect on July 1.

The treaty was first signed in February 2014 after protracted negotiations between Ottawa and New Delhi.

The new coproduction treaty will be administered by Telefilm Canada on behalf of the Canadian government, and aims at “ongoing exchanges and interaction between cultures.”

How that works out in practice with the 10-page agreement is that it will enable producers from both countries to pool creative talent and available subsidies to complete film, TV and digital projects.

As with other coproduction treaty partners, the share of work available to Indian and Canadian producers will be proportionate to their financial contributions, depending on minority or majority status as part of the partnership.

The Canada-India coproduction treaty is also the first to be signed since Ottawa revised its coproduction treaty for the digital age, and enacted those changes in March 2013.

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