Make it a B2B production market
Reserve the core programme for deal rooms, production-service matchmaking, location showcases and policy clinics—not only screenings and celebrity sessions.
ALEPH360 · RESEARCH NOTE · hello@aleph360.com · aleph360.com
FILM / TOURISM / MARKET DEVELOPMENT
A film festival should sell Haryana
The useful question is not “which celebrities will come?” It is “which productions will return to shoot?”
The strategic choice
Film festivals can do two very different jobs. Some states build the festival itself as an intellectual-property asset: a public cultural event with premieres, stars, press and audiences. Others use the festival as a congregation point—an efficient moment to bring producers, scouts, commissioners, line producers and service partners into the state. Neither model is wrong. The problem begins when a destination-development festival is assessed only through celebrity visibility.
In Aleph360’s experience, the choice has to be explicit. If Haryana wants to become a film-production destination, the festival should be designed primarily as a market-facing invitation to make work here. The red carpet can create attention; the production meeting creates a shoot.
Why line producers matter more than celebrities
A producer or director may choose the story. A line producer makes the location practical: permits, crew, transport, accommodation, equipment, weather cover, local vendors, security and the daily reality of a shoot. These are the people who convert an attractive location into a booked schedule.
That changes the first guest list. Haryana should prioritise working line producers and production managers from the South Indian industries, Hindi film and streaming production, regional-language cinema, music-video labels, advertising production houses and location-management companies. Music albums and commercials are especially useful early wins: they move faster than feature films, test locations repeatedly and create a visible reel of what a place can do.
A festival is valuable when it makes Haryana easier to choose on the next production call sheet.
The location proposition
Haryana Tourism positions the state’s farmland, modern villages, diverse landscapes and historical settings as filming assets. That range is the proposition: contemporary NCR business districts; highways and industrial settings; villages and agricultural landscapes; Aravalli edges; wetlands; Morni’s hill terrain; heritage towns, forts and religious sites. The work is to package this range into a location library that a production team can use in minutes, not discover over weeks.
Use the policy as a conversion tool
Haryana’s Film & Entertainment Policy 2022 offers a practical base: a Film Promotion Board, incentives linked to eligibility and approval, support for shooting permissions, and location rebates. The point is not to headline the largest number. It is to make the policy operational: what is available, who qualifies, which documents are needed, how approvals work and what can happen before a crew arrives.
Four design moves
Invite the people who operationalise shoots
Build delegations of line producers, music-video producers, ad-film teams, OTT production managers and regional production houses.
Commission a Haryana location reel
Create brief-led reels and a searchable library with permits, distance, crew access and seasonality alongside each location.
Measure shoots, not selfies
Track recce requests, permissions issued, shooting days, local spend, crew jobs and repeat productions in the year after the festival.
The opportunity
Haryana does not need to outspend established festivals on spectacle. It can become more useful. By convening the people who decide where productions are made—and pairing location diversity with a navigable policy and responsive production support—the state can turn a festival from an event into a permanent sales engine for its screen economy.