Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Friday, Mar 21, 2003
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Friday, Mar 21, 2003 |
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Marketing
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Strategy Variety - Entertainment & Leisure Saas-Bahu serials go to foreign locales
Nithya Subramanian
NEW DELHI, March 20 THIS time it's not the hero desperately wooing the pretty young thing. The Rs 13,000-crore Indian film and broadcasting industry is being pursued by tourism boards from across the globe to come and shoot in exotic foreign locales. So you have tourism promotion offices of Australia, Canada, UK, Malaysia among others vying to play host to big and small Indian stars. Besides a host of Hindi flicks moving to locales across the world, some episodes of Balaji Telefilm's popular Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhie Bahu Thi and Kasautii Zindagi Ki have been shot in Australia while Aroona Irani's Des Mein Nikla Hoga Chand is located in the UK. . "While Hindi films have been going to foreign shores for some time now, the trend of television soaps shooting abroad is a new one. And just as foreign locales attract Indian viewers to the big screen, it is felt that audiences will be attracted to television soaps," said a television industry official. Also, with channels such as Star Plus, Zee and Sony becoming extremely popular among Indians living in the West, setting stories outside India enables them to retain these audiences, he added. According to Mr Prem Subramaniam, Country Manager, British Tourism Authority (BTA), "We focussed on 20 well-known Indian producers, of which 12 eventually made films in the UK. Now about two TV serials are being shot in the country." According to him, shooting films or television serials in foreign soil helps boost tourism in that country. For instance, The Lord of the Rings helped New Zealand cross the two-million tourists mark. Similarly, the Australian Tourist Commission (ATC) said that it was looking at wooing Indian tourists through television serials. An ATC spokesperson said, "ATC has a clear marketing strategy and will consider assisting production houses that help us to raise awareness of cosmopolitan Australia and the diversity of holiday activities and destinations that we are promoting in India." Malaysia's Ministry for Tourism and Culture has also been sending feelers to Indian film producers and South Indian television serial producers. And several baits are being offered to lure the glamour world. While Switzerland is said to be not charging any locale fees, UK is focusing on the convenience factor because of the large Indian diaspora living there. Malaysia is looking at highlighting the cost factor and offering discounts on baggage. ATC's involvement ranges from itinerary arrangements to referrals to Australian production companies, visa assistance and even providing boarding and lodging. It has more than 25 hours of raw footage that has been professionally shot on Beta format using expert film crews from Australia. This footage could be used by crews to reduce cost and time on ground.
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