Marion Trotte, a French filmmaker based here, is not just an Indophile but a Hindi movie buff who has been, since a year, collecting videos about events related to India, especially on the happenings in Bollywood.
Trotte' wants to host a first-of-its-kind Bollywood flashmob in the Slovenian capital to bring fans of Hindi cinema together for a documentary he wants to make. Trotte says there is a huge community of Bollywood lovers in Slovenia, a small country of just two million people in Central Europe.
A flashmob is a group of people who gather suddenly in a public place, perform an act for a brief time and then quickly disperse.
He will shoot the flashmob and and finish his movie with the event, further information on which will be soon available on the Facebook page <https://www.facebook.com/slowlywood>.
The filmmaker has even uploaded a tutorial on online videosharing platform YouTube for those who wish to learn the dance steps for the flashmob. The video, posted online March 17, has already been viewed 480 times.
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Slovenia has a market for Indian cinema. However, commercial distribution is now hampered by the small market size and the legal requirement that any foreign film in public exhibition must be dubbed or at least subtitled in the Slovene language. Nevertheless, film festivals and cine clubs in Ljubljana, Koper and Maribor, give screen to Indian films to listed members only.
Acclaimed film "The Lunchbox" was shown in the Ljubljana International Film Festival 2013 and in theatres around Slovenia thereafter, and some Slovenian distributors have expressed interest in tying up with Indian cinema exporters.
The RTA Agency of Slovenia is focussed on facilitating shooting of Indian productions, particularly from South India, in Slovenia locales. Five such film shoots have been done so far, while five more are planned in 2014.
"An annual Festival of Indian Cinema is being planned for 2014-2015," Sarvajit Chakravarti, Indian ambassador, told IANS. He said Bollywood dancing too is gaining popularity nationwide and several groups have evolved.