bollywood..worlds the playground

Foreign film industries try to woo Bollywood & its fans

BOMBAY—Film industries around the world are courting prolific Bollywood after realising that the Indian song-and-dance movies can yield long-term dividends by drawing tourists to the locales of their favourite hits. India produces more than 800 movies a year and the Hindi-language industry based in Bombay, has for decades sought out lush scenes of mountains and lakes for its formulaic love stories.

Film companies from countries including Australia, Finland, Germany and New Zealand met at the weekend here for a two-day conference on ways to draw Indian productions abroad. The first Indian film to be shot in New Zealand was ``Sanam Harjai’’ in 1995 and since then 90 films have been produced entirely or in part in the country.

The influx has led not only to short-term employment in New Zealand but to a major growth in Indian tourism, said Raajew Singh, who represented the Wellington government at the conference. ``In 1995 there were only 400 tourists from India to New Zealand and this figure rose to 25,000 in 2001 only because of the awareness among the Indians created by Bollywood,’’ Singh said.

``The locations in New Zealand are so attractive that Indian tourists now prefer holidaying in New Zealand. In fact, we had to increase our immigration staff from 30 to 150 people in the New Zealand embassy because of the huge tourist flow from India,’’ he said. Major Indian films shot in New Zealand include ``Koi Mil Gaya’’ (``Someone Found’’) which starred heartthrob Hrithik Roshan.

India’s film industry is estimated to have an annual turnover of 60 billion rupees (US$1.3 billion) and employs nearly six million people. The first Indian film is now being shot in Germany, a movie about Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, a revolutionary who fought British colonialism in India.

``I am here to inform Bollywood producers that Germany can offer a lot of exotic locations for shooting. There are beautiful castles and well-laid government policies to help producers from abroad,’’ said Peter Englert, in Bombay to promote the German state of Bavaria.

``The bureaucratic attitude of the Indian government is sickening,’’ said well-known producer Nitin Keni. ``There is too much red tape and therefore there is an exodus of all the top Bollywood producers abroad. There is corruption everywhere and the government is unable to prevent that at the low level,’’ Keni said.

In contrast, a number of foreign countries are offering special tax concessions and facilities. Veteran film producer Manmohan Shetty said the costs of flying abroad did not necessarily make foreign shoots prohibitive.

He said a return ticket from Bombay to Indian Kashmir - the top spot for films until an Islamic insurgency broke out in the Himalayan province in 1989 - was around 25,000 rupees (US$550), compared with 19,000 rupees to go to the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius.

``A return ticket to any of the northeastern states of India is 26,000 rupees. So the cost factor in shooting abroad is very cheap compared to India,’’ Shetty said.