Vivek Agrawal: It’s time to explore the Far East of Russia

Vivek Agrawal is a multi award winning screenwriter, director and producer of the English feature film 'Land Gold Women' (2011). Born and educated in South Mumbai, Vivek has a Bachelor's degree in Accounting and Finance Management and a Masters in Economics before pursuing his passion for film-making. He has been associated with the Indian Film/Media Industry since 1994 in various capacities and has been part of over 30 feature films and over 100 ad-films.

He has successfully produced films of all scales. Vivek Agrawal has travelled all across the globe and has practical experience of producing all over India, Europe, Africa, Australia-New Zealand and USA.

In an exclusive interview with TV BRICS on the sidelines of Russian Creative Week, the producer talked about the prospects for developing the Far East of Russia as one of the regional centres of the film industry.

The distance between India and the Far East of Russia is quite large. Can you tell us why you decided to attend the Russian Creative Week forum?

Russia is a vast and big country. Not too many films have been shot in Russia in the last 20 years from India. I think it’s time to explore the Far East of Russia which has not been seen in too many films and it’s time to explore several regions in this part of the world.

Do you think the platform that has been set up in the Far East of Russia will allow the Asia-Pacific region to learn about the BRICS states?

One can do that, but principally my interest is to explore this region from an entertainment perspective, as there is too much content that has been made today. It is a vast area. You know many think of the Kamchatka Peninsula, Vladivostok and a lot of stories can be done there.

What have you already learned about the Russian Far East?

The food is very good, the people are very nice and the distance is long.

What about the cinema? I feel the desire is there of the people in this region to grow the industry. They just need to be guided to physically create the infrastructure. And once the infrastructure is created, I think it will be great. But people are definitely passionate about growing the creative field.

What kind of experience can India offer?

India is a vast county, you know we have 1.4 billion people. And the primary passion of Indians is watching the films. It is a great market, we often release in more than hundred countries. I think what we have to offer you is through this cross-culture of shooting films, exchanging some thoughts and ideas it will grow tourism in this country.

At least in terms of Vladivostok, I think before the pandemic, there were at most a few thousand tourists a year. But I think with the exchange of ideas and through films that have been shot in this region the number of a few thousand will go to a few million.

Photo: photo service of Russian Creative Week