In a boost to the media industry, last week the Israeli Finance Minister, Mr. Avigdor Liberman announced a 25% tax rebate for international TV and film productions with an initial budget of 45 million shekels ($14.5 million) for two years. This has been long due and it has materialized due to the combined effort of the cultural, foreign, economic, tourism and finance ministries.

This rebate will prove to be an encouragement for foreign film and television producers to explore the varied locations of Israel. While in the absence of the incentive, very few producers were able to explore Israel, now the numbers are bound to increase.

While Israel’s economy will definitely benefit from this tax incentive by more jobs being created and a boost for the hospitality industry, it will also be a fresh and quite an undiscovered location for shoots given the fact that Israel has some varied landscapes to explore from the desert to the Dead Sea.

Additionally, with Israel being one of the 1st countries to control the Covid-19 situation and getting its population vaccinated, it is bound to be a preferred choice of destination for the shoot crew.

Closer home, the 2019 Bollywood movie by Dharma Productions, “ Drive” had a song sequence shot in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Yogita Kale-Desai

Trade Officer

Economic & Trade Mission of Israel in Mumbai
Tel: +91-22-61600519
Email yogita.kale@israeltrade.gov.il