Recognising the role it played in promoting India as a tourism destination, especially Puducherry and Munnar (Kerala), the film Life of Pi has been given two awards by the tourism ministry.

Announcing the awards on Saturday, tourism minister Chiranjeevi said these would be given to Ang Lee, director of the film Life of Pi and Yann Martel, writer of the Booker prize winning book of the same name.

The minister expressed hope that this will go a long way in encouraging film producers from abroad to shoot films in India.

Every year, the ministry recognises various stakeholders, including film makers and writers for their contribution in promoting India tourism by conferring  the national tourism awards.

The ministry has identified 'film tourism' as a niche tourism product and has requested state governments and union territory administrations to recognise the potential of film tourism and constitute special bodies/cells to facilitate filming in their respective states/union territories.

In February this year, the ministry had signed a MoU with ministry of information & broadcasting as a major initiative to promote the 'Incredible India' campaign and had made Indian cinema a sub brand of the campaign at various international film festivals.