The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Selling British locales for Indian films

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 08, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Selling British locales for Indian films

By Ramya Kannan

G.D. Jayalakshmi of Filmpur. — Photo: S. R. Raghunathan

CHENNAI, APRIL 7. The following are factoids that most of us have never heard of: 25 per cent of all certified South Indian films shoot abroad at a cost of over 9.37 million pounds. And 10 per cent of all Bollywood films shoot abroad spending about three million pounds.

Excellent reasons for the staff of Filmpur, a United Kingdom-based public-private venture to attract shooting projects to that nation, to scout in India. Filmpur, based in Leicester is a joint venture of several government agencies including the East Midlands Development Agency, Leicester Economic Partnership, Leicester City Council, the Tourism Department, lens manufacturer Cooke Optics and M.A.Television.

And when they did come to India, it could not get better, as G.D. Jayalakshmi of Filmpur found out.

The team met with around 400 producers in Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore, nearly all of whom were interested in shooting abroad, especially England. Some of them had already shot full-length movies or song sequences outside the country, but all of them asked the same set of questions: What about visas? Where are the spots that we can shoot in? What is the process for getting approval to shoot? What are the costs involved?

Based in Leicester, Filmpur is currently pegging on a pan-U.K. promotion campaign — attracting film business to various locales in the U.K. and will eventually expand to become pan-European, Ms. Jayalakshmi says.

The firm, thanks to the involvement of both government and private agencies, will be able to suggest locales for shooting, find production assistants, actors, dancers and even produce coconuts and agarbathis at short notice.

Ms. Jayalakshmi, who was in Chennai to meet members of the South India Film Chamber of Commerce, also points out that recent negotiations between U.K. and India in the entertainment sector will prove to be of immense benefit to the Indian film industry.

``You can spend 30 per cent of the budget of the film in England and 70 per cent shooting in India, but your film will still be certified in Britain.

That way, the film will be both Indian and British.''

Other collaborations in terms of working together on scripts, production, music and direction, encouraging young Indian film makers, providing a platform to present mainstream Indian movies abroad, are all on the cards, she adds.

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