The Centre will soon frame a range of policies on film piracy, taxation, export and conduct of film festivals, a senior government official said today.

"The information and broadcasting ministry has formed five core groups which will submit their reports within a month. Thereafter, the government will give shape to policies on key issues facing the industry," V B Pyarelal, Joint Secretary (films) in the ministry, said here.

He was participating in a conference on "India - The Big Picture" organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on the eve of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) to be held here.

Pyarelal, who is also director of IFFI 2006, noted that the Indian film industry, one of the largest in the world, has grown by and large without government support.

"But that does not mean the government is shying away from responsibility but instead it wants to be a catalyst in the promotion and development of the film industry." Talking about film co-production treaties with other nations, he said an agreement with the Italian government is in place and it is helping both countires.

"Similar pacts with Brazil and China are also in the pipeline," Pyarelal said. "We have already held discussions with Britain on fine tuning a co-production agreement."

--- PTI