How are so many movies being shot abroad? Isn’t that much more expensive? This is one thought that was laid to rest at a recent panel discussion when the makers and producers from the regional language industry, who have travelled all continents, visited over a hundred destinations and filmed extensively at different locations came together to share their experiences at the India International Film Tourism Conclave (IIFTC).
By the end, it was clear as to why the opposite is true- that is costlier for them to shoot in India than outside. And these were the reasons why.
Housefull 2 has many scenes shot in Thailand |
Nishanthan Niruthan
(Head of Operations, Lyca Productions)
We’ve been to Europe, and were in Azerbaijan recently. We’re also thinking of going to other countries like Thailand. In fact, Sri Lanka is another major location for us where we ended up setting up our own production company because we were going there so often to film there. And now we are actually producing completely Sri Lankan films for the Sri Lankan market.
In terms of the cost of production, one alarming trend that’s happening in Indian cinema right now is that the cost of actors is going up, beyond control. So we are now forced to be in a position where we have to go abroad for two reasons. One, it reduces our cost significantly if we are able to control it properly and we have have the right relationships there. Two, for us in the south Indian industry especially, we need to now go to places where the actor won’t be bothered. Like with some of the actors that we work with right now, just a simple scene like them eating chips at a beach is impossible to film in India. I keep using the word relationships over and over again because there are times when we’ve been abroad where the cost ended up ballooning out of control. So it’s like a double edged sword. It’s kind of like a tightrope walk for us in production where if you go abroad with the right relationships then it’s much cheaper than it would be here.
Tiger and Shraddha’s Baaghi was shot in Thailand |
Abhishek Daga
(Business Head, SVF)
We don’t have 100 crore movie budgets, and hence it’s very important for us to plan our resources, schedules and trips so that we can control cost. We’ve shot twice in Amazon, which is something very big for a regional movie, as spending a budget of 30 crores for us is really huge-normally our movie budgets are around three crores. But it was just amazing to see how people supported us, they went out of the way and were so emotional about an Indian movie being shot there. Abroad we don’t have to worry about our actors moving freely wherever they want to go, wherever we want to shoot, whether it’s a marketplace, train station or a beach, but in India we can’t do that. When we plan our shoots abroad better, we are able to reduce cost and get a better product.
A Sri Lankan temple appears in Singham Again |
Harshith Reddy
(Managing Partner, Dil Raju Productions)
Its important to go through the right channel and people. In some countries the working hours are 10, while we are used to 12 hours. In other situations we face visa issues because of which half my crew was cut off. So from that I have understood that I have to know the right channels. We had taken someone’s contact from IIFTC because of which a shoot in Africa went smoothly for us.
KK Radhamohan
(Producer, Sri Sathya Sai Arts)
A part of our job is convincing the artists and technicians that they don’t need to take so many people with them. When going abroad you need to see the weather pattern. People just plan ahead not knowing what weather is going to be, for example if it is the rainy season you end up losing a lot of money and maybe coming back and going again. Budgeting is also very important, before you go you need to know what you want to do, how many days you want to shoot, the crew you want, what help you need from the local support, what sort of budget you have got and discuss thoroughly and then probably keep a contingency plan. Most of the failures I see in the industry are actually budget failures. The content may be good, artists are good, technicians are good, but the budget is bad. Right now the situation is quite tough selling movies, so controlling the budget is very important.
