NEW DELHI (AFP) ― India has simplified rules for foreign moviemakers wanting to film in the country and is promising speedy approval of projects, after frustrating redtape and delays were blamed for crews shooting elsewhere.

The ministry of information and broadcasting said it was “inviting” foreign filmmakers to make their movies in India ― “a country with locations of untold beauty.”

“We have simplified the procedure for shooting of films by foreigners in India,” the ministry of information and broadcasting said on its website.

“Your permission to shoot should not take more than three weeks to process,” an undated notice on the website said on Wednesday.

The move comes after global business consultancy Ernst and Young in a report last year called India’s lack of simplified clearance for filming a “primary obstacle” to attracting foreign moviemakers.

Under the old rules, foreign filmmakers needed 70 approvals and licences from different Indian government authorities to shoot movies in the country, the Ernst and Young report said. The new rules tell applicants to send a letter with proposed dates and sites for shooting the movie as well as cast member names and a $225 cheque, the website said.

Bureaucratic red-tape was blamed for India losing at least 18 big-budget foreign movies over four years to 2012, the report by Ernst and Young said.