Bollywood films capitalise on scenic locations in Thailand
By Rama Gaind
There’s a certain mystique about Thailand, but my fascination was further fuelled on learning that this kingdom is now the number one location for shooting Indian films.
Bollywood has been fascinated with foreign locales for quite a while, but it appears that Indian filmmakers have taken a fancy to shooting action movies in Thailand as it works out cheaper compared with Europe.
During a recent trip, hosted by the Tourism Authority of Thailand, I spoke with a number of Indians (and others) who were enthusiastic about the increasing number of Indian film crews visiting various cities.
What’s been filmed in Thailand?
Nikhil Advani’s ‘Chandni Chowk To China’ and Anthony D’Souza’s directorial debut in ‘Blue’, an underwater action thriller, which is said to be the most expensive Hindi film. It stars Sanjay Dutt, Akshay Kumar, Zayed Khan, Lara Dutta and Katrina Kaif.
Talented Shreyas Talpade is travelling to Bangkok so often that the actor jokingly says he might apply for Thai citizenship.
He has been to Bangkok many times for many of his films from ‘Bombay To Bangkok’, ‘Golmaal Returns’ to ‘Paying Guests’.
“Though we were more around Pattaya than Bangkok for ‘Paying Guests’, I am again going back to the Thai capital for some of my upcoming films,” Talpade says. “I really like that place.”
Bollywood actress Celina Jaitley is playing a glamorous woman in her first Kannada film ‘Sreemathi’, a remake of Hindi film ‘Aitraaz’, and the former Miss India bought all her costumes from Bangkok and Paris and Bangkok for it. Why? Her designer wanted her to have the looks of glamorous heroine of the ‘80s.
Some scenes from producer Aditya Ram’s ‘Ek Niranjan’, directed by Puri Jagannath and starring Prabhas and Kangana Ranaut were shot in Bangkok and Pattaya. Major portion of the movie was shot in a huge set eerected in Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad.
However, what some of the ‘locals’ had to say was heartening.
Meeting the director of sales and marketing at Dusit Thani in Bangkok, Andrew Cornelio, was an infectious evening. He still could not contain his excitement after his hotel hosted the 2008 IIFA and how he could vividly remember its Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan. awards being held at his hotel in 2007.
“I’ll never get tired of speaking about the time that the event was held in our hotel,” Mr Cornelio said. “Sure there was a lot of work that went into putting on a show of that calibre, there was months of planning involved, but the rewards were amazing.”
“We had so much happening, Bollywood stars, international celebrities, fans and our hotel was full at all times.
“We would certainly like to host another IIFA event in the near future.”
Indian-born Shreyash Shah, sales manager at the glorious Royal Cliff Beach Resort in Pattaya, was enthusiastic in describing the films and how he made a point of seeing all of them.
Among the films that have recently been shot there are ‘Kal Kisne Dekha’, starring debutants Jackky Bhagnani and Vaishali Desai which has been directed by Vivek Sharma who had earlier directed ‘Bhootnath’. There’s also ‘Golmaal’, ‘Loot’ and many more to come.
I met Deep Singh, manager of Namaste India, a café half way between Bangkok and Pattaya, whose brother Dilbir Singh Sahani (known as ‘Bobby’) assisted will film shoots through his company Indo-Bangkok Film Pty Ltd. I was unable to meet him as he was busy with a film crew, but had dinner at his restaurant Spices in Pattaya which was being managed by Sandeep ‘Tony’ Bairua
Even Pongsak Kanittanon, public relations manager with the Tourism Authority of Thailand in Sydney, attested to the importance of Thailand being a popular destination for filming, saying there were a ‘lot of places to showcase overseas’.
Our tour guide Wasawadee Sanpradith, of Sydney, was a patient listener as I spoke at length about the worldwide popularity of Bollywood.
A testament to these sentiments has come with the news that Thailand’s national committee on film production recently approved a 2009-2011 master plan to promote Thailand as the hub for shooting and post-production.
Even the 7th Bangkok International Film Festival 2009, held in September, took on a strongly social and regional thematic focus with films that exemplified today’s era of change.
For the second time, the Tourism Authority of Thailand and the Federation of National Film Associations of Thailand joined forces to present the foremost film event in south-east Asia. Not only had attendance risen on previous years, but the festival directors managed to attract an even wider range of audiences, exposing a new generation of filmgoers to an incredible variety of movies from across the globe.
Rama Gaind was a guest of the Tourism Authority of Thailand.
