Russia's 40% cash rebate scheme launches with Bollywood spy thriller

Bollywood feature Production 70 (working title) has become the first project to benefit from Russia's 40% cash rebate scheme from the Russian Export Center and the Russian Ministry of Economic Development. 

The spy thriller, currently shooting in St Petersburg under director Maneesh Sharma, is from Yash Raj Films, and stars Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif. It will be refunded almost $650,000 for filming in Russia under the rebate programme, based on the declared budget for production in Russia at the time of submitting the application. 

Yash Raj Films is one of India’s largest production studios and has offices in New York, London and Dubai. 

Evgenia Danilchenko, head of creative industries support at Russian Export Center, said: “It is especially important for us that the first film to receive support under the federal rebate program is a large-scale project, a sequel to a popular Indian blockbuster. Besides attracting investment and infrastructure development, we pursue an increase in the tourist flow to the filming locations. 

"Russian government has allocated more than 4 million dollars for the trial period of the program from 2021 to 2023, but we hope to increase this amount next year, because we see high demand from large-budget international projects”

The organisation of the shooting process in Russia is handled by Alexander Dostal, general producer of Etalon-Film production company. Yash Raj Films was able to receive the support under the rebate program thanks to Etalon-Film, which de facto became a recipient of the cashback from the state bodies. 

“Shooting an Indian movie in a Russian city is a real challenge, but we managed to organize Bollywood on the streets of Saint-Petersburg. Scenes with chases, disappearances and complex stunts on the background of the main city streets and squares – we could only imagine such action before. Due to the fact that the film became a recipient of the cash rebate, our Indian partners decided to increase the budget and the variety of full-scale shooting locations,” remarked Dostal. 

In total, Yash Raj Films attracted more than 80% of Russian film crew in specialist roles.