Take the movie route to lure the Indian tourist

Business Line reports that Singapore Tourist Board (STB) has inked a deal with Rakesh Roshan’s Filmkraft to film a major portion of the Hrithik’s forthcoming movie in S’pore. This looks like a win-win deal for both the parties as Filmkraft will get some sops because of selecting Singapore and in return S’pore will get to promote some of its tourist attractions through the film. A part of popular Tamil mega-serial Metti Oli was also shot in Singapore. The STB worked together with the producers in this serial as well.

The Indian traveller is becoming more and more affluent and countries like S’pore and Switzerland are using the movie route to attract the tourist dollars. Although I don’t know the exact way in which Switzerland is promoting the filming of Indian movies, they seem to be attracting lot of Indian tourists especially after some of the Shah Rukh Khan and Yash Chopra movies were shot there. The Swiss government chose to honour Yash Chopra for his help in promoting Switzerland as a tourist destination.

The State governments (in India) do charge the filmmakers for shooting the movies in public places. Given the crowd problems in India, it becomes quite difficult to shoot films in public places. Due to some of these monetary and non-monetary reasons, filmmakers are increasingly opting for the cool confines of foreign countries.

If the same London Tower Bridge, Swiss Alps, Twelve Apostles, Niagara Falls, Petronas Towers and Sydney Harbour Bridge are going to be shown in each and every song sequence, people are going to grow sick and tired of it. They might as well see Discovery Travel and Adventure Channel, as they don’t have to bear with the ‘white’ group dancers clad in desi costumes.

With Bollywood becoming more and more prominent, it is better that we showcase India to the world (through our movies). TIME Magazine had recently come up with a list called "The Best of Asia" and Bollywood was mentioned as the "Best Place to Dream of Stardom". Tourism Minister Renuka Choudhury can utilize some of her lavish ad budgets to project Indian tourist destinations. Movies like Bride & Prejudice would have been excellent opportunities to do this as they were targeted at the international audience and not just the Indian filmgoer. Movies can also be used as a medium to promote domestic tourism in India. With the growing popularity of Budget airlines, domestic tourism will get a quantum jump if things fall in place.