Maharashtra's ₹3,266-crore AVGC-XR policy allocates ₹100 crore this year and sets no per-project rate; Rajasthan reimburses up to 30 per cent, Karnataka 20

AVGC-XR's policy tracker lists five state AVGC-XR policies currently active or approved: Rajasthan 2024, Kerala 2024, Karnataka 3.0, Maharashtra 2025 and Tamil Nadu 2026 ^[19]. Read against their own documents, they do different things with money, and the figures they are announced with are not the figures a studio claims against a production budget.

Maharashtra's carries the largest headline number. Its Government Resolution NASAM-2025/PR.CR.83/Industry-2, issued on 3 November 2025 ^[1], puts the policy's outlay at ₹3,266 crore across 2025 to 2050, with ₹1,306 crore of it falling in 2025-30 and ₹100 crore allocated for 2025-26 ^[2]. The instruments are funds: an AVGC-XR Fund of ₹300 crore, a WAVES participation fund of ₹200 crore, ₹50 crore each for talent-and-innovation platforms and an IP marketplace, and ₹10 crore for the Maharashtra Young Creators Awards ^[3]. Alongside them sit stamp duty exemptions, power tariff concessions, plug-and-play workspaces in AVGC-XR parks and common-use facilities on a pay-per-use model ^[4]. The Resolution's schedule of support sets out no per-project reimbursement rate or cap for films, episodes or games; it refers to targeted production cost support for international co-productions without stating a rate ^[5].

Maharashtra's cabinet approved the AVGC-XR Policy 2025 with a financial plan of ₹3,268 crore ^[20]. The ₹2 crore difference between announcement and Resolution is small against the difference between ₹3,266 crore to 2050 and ₹100 crore in the current year ^[2][6].

Where production spend is reimbursed

Two of the five states reimburse a share of what a project costs.

Rajasthan pays up to 30 per cent of qualified expenditure, capped at ₹50 lakh per entity, for animation films of 60 minutes or more and for episodic series of at least 10 episodes ^[7]. VFX, AR and VR projects draw up to 30 per cent to a ₹50 lakh cap per entity per financial year ^[8]. Mobile and console games draw up to 20 per cent capped at ₹1 crore per entity, disbursed against milestones ^[9]. Comics draw up to 25 per cent capped at ₹15 lakh within a financial year ^[10]. The policy runs to 31 March 2029 ^[11].

Karnataka, under AVGC-XR Policy 3.0 (2024-29), pays up to 20 per cent, on AnimationXpress's March 2024 itemisation of the policy ^[12]. Animation films are reimbursed at up to 20 per cent of qualified expenditure, capped at ₹50 lakh, and VFX, AR and VR projects at the same rate and cap ^[12]. Game development is capped at ₹5 lakh and international productions at ₹1 crore ^[14]. Series are capped per episode — ₹15 lakh for a 22-minute episode, ₹10 lakh for 11 minutes, ₹5 lakh for six ^[13]. Access is conditional on KAVGC registration, which the same report puts at a ₹10,000 first-time fee ^[15].

A percentage reimbursement subject to a ceiling only reaches that ceiling at a particular level of spend, and the two states set the ceiling against different units. Rajasthan's applies to the entity ^[7]; Karnataka's applies to each episode ^[13].

The break-even points are arithmetic on those published rates and caps rather than figures either policy states. Thirty per cent of ₹1.67 crore is ₹50 lakh, Rajasthan's per-entity ceiling ^[7] — around ₹17 lakh an episode across a 10-episode series. Twenty per cent of ₹75 lakh is ₹15 lakh, Karnataka's ceiling for a 22-minute episode ^[13]. Below those levels of qualified expenditure the rate is what binds; above them, the cap is.

Tamil Nadu funds capacity, not projects

Tamil Nadu's 2026 policy provides ₹250 crore for research and technology, startup grants of up to ₹1 crore through the Digital Accelerator scheme, ₹50 crore for the ELCOT Viyan Centre of Excellence in Chennai with regional spokes in five cities, and ₹40 crore over five years to bring AVGC-XR conferences to the state ^[16]. IP filing rebates run to 100 per cent of filing costs, capped at ₹20 lakh internationally and ₹8 lakh domestically, and that report describes no per-project production expenditure reimbursement in the policy ^[18].

The company incentive packages — payroll subsidies, capital expenditure support, lease and rent incentives, stamp-duty exemptions, electricity concessions — carry employment thresholds: 80 or more personnel in Chennai and Coimbatore City, or 40 or more in tier-two districts ^[17].

Four instruments, not four offers

On their own documents, the four policies apply money at different points. Rajasthan and Karnataka reimburse a share of qualified expenditure on a named project, at published rates and caps ^[7][12]. Maharashtra's instruments are funds, stamp duty exemption, power tariff concessions and workspace, with no per-project rate in the Resolution ^[3][4][5]. Tamil Nadu's are funds, IP rebates and company packages gated on headcount thresholds of 80 in Chennai and Coimbatore City and 40 in tier-two districts ^[16][17][18]. AVGC-XR's tracker lists Kerala's 2024 policy over the same 2024-29 window as Karnataka's and Rajasthan's ^[19].

The headline outlay figures and the reimbursement caps are therefore quantities of different kinds. ₹3,266 crore is a state's spending plan to 2050 ^[2]; ₹50 lakh is the ceiling on what one entity can claim against one series ^[7].