I recently bought Sony BDP S380 for 5.6K from local store. It's region C locked for BD and region free for DVD. It's pretty decent player with NTFS support, very good BD loading times.
Philips BDP 2600 would be the cheapest bet for 4.9K online (locally may be less) for region C locked BD player.
Both upscale DVDs. But build quality is better for Sony. And another thing is Philips 2600 does not have front display panel.
All Panny, LG, Samsung players available in India are region C locked players.
For region free, there was one option from Onida. Onida BDX1110. But now that player would be EOL. Try your luck finding it out. One soft mod was there by which one could change regions unlimited times.
If you are importing, Toshiba BDX3200KE or BDX3200KB (that KE/KB part I dont remember exactly) is VFM region free player. Cannot comment on Build quality and other features.
Buy BD player only If you really want to watch BDs. Else any good Sony DVD player which upscales DVD should be good enough. Which should cost approx 2.5 to 3K.
But Once you start watching BDs, I am pretty much sure you will love it.