Switzerland is pitching for regional Indian cinema, riding on the fad among Bollywood filmmakers to use its Alpine setting as backdrop for their dream sequences. According to an IANS report, the country’s tourism industry has started working closely with an organisation called the Film Location Switzerland to attract Indian filmmakers from Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Bengali cinema. According to Ashish Saran, General Manager, Switzerland Destination Marketing, the country's public-private initiative to promote tourism, song sequences for 15-20 Indian films are shot each year with the pristine settings of the Alps for backdrop. “The cost of living in Switzerland is high but filmmakers don’t feel the pinch. We offer all facilities to them in package deals. Technical help, shooting equipment, or scouts to fix locales are all available in plenty,” added Saran.
Furthermore, in the past, Swiss government honoured Indian filmmakers like Yash Chopra for popularising the country, while the Bollywood theme night during the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum at Davos in January has been a major draw for several years. |