Hollywood films starring India

Scenes from several recent Hollywood films reveal the Wests increasing intent to connect with the Indian audiences.

The camera pans to a little girl running through the claustrophobic streets of Kolkata. She reaches a small shack,where Dr Bruce Banner stays incognito and requests Doctor Sahib played by Mark Ruffalo to visit her ailing father. This is how the character of Hulk aka Dr Bruce Banner is introduced in the recently released film,The Avengers.

Last year,the ground crew of The Dark Knight Rises was in Jodhpur for nearly two months,securing permissions and preparing the area for the shoot. Eventually,actor Christian Bale and director Christopher Nolan shot here for four days. So,one of the sequences in the film has Bale,in the Batman costume, jumping down from a helicopter. It was shot at Mehrangarh Fort,Jodhpur.

There are other instances. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel has been extensively shot in Mumbai and Udaipur. As was last years Tom Cruise and Anil Kapoor-starrer Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol.

Jeremy Latchman,producer of The Avengers,says,The city of Kolkata,with its crowded streets and bazaars,was recreated in New Mexico. This was done in association with the local Indian community. The team also worked with Indian rock band Agnee,who penned down a track for the film. The idea was to introduce our characters to Indian audiences in a manner that they can relate to them, adds Latchman.

So what is it that attracts these filmmakers to India and Indian audiences? Samir Sarkar of Magic Hour Films,a company that facilitates foreign crews to shoot in India,says,The reason that foreign filmmakers prefer India for shooting big and small sequences is because the country has diverse culture and locales that make for excellent shooting locations. Of course,the production costs are cheaper.

Low production costs,easy availability of daily-wage workers and a variety of exotic locations this is just one part of the story. There is a huge commercial interest in the Indian market as well. The Motion Pictures Distribution Assocation of India mentions that the number of screens in India rose from 193 in 2006 to 907 in 2011. Also,the involvement of digital cinema in no less than 1,000 screens here has also become a reason for this sudden interest of Hollywood filmmakers in India. Furthermore,it is expected that the Indian film industry will grow up to 3.6 billion in 2012 double of 2011,attracting a lot of Hollywood biggies to invest in the country.

However,shooting in India doesnt happen without a fair share of red tapism. While there were scenes of Mumbai in Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol,Tom Cruise refrained from shooting in Rajasthan,to which Kapoor had to later clarify that Cruise wasnt going to shoot in India owing to logistical problems. However,rumours had it that Cruise was not happy with the time being taken to obtain permissions for the shoot. Ditto for The Dark Knight Rises. The shot was 20-second-long but the crew spent nearly two months in Jodhpur securing permissions for it, says Balraj Singh,sales manager at Vivanta by Taj,Hari Mahal,where the films crew was put up.

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Nonetheless,the interest of Hollywood filmmakers in India is going to increase in the coming days.