Earlier this month, hundreds of fans gathered in front of the historic Egyptian Theater here in Los Angeles to catch a glimpse of Matt Damon at a benefit screening of "The Bourne Supremacy." The film opened with shots of Damon on a beach in Goa. Soon he was running through Goa's teeming streets to elude a tough assassin (Karl Urban) sent by a Russian oil tycoon.
The 10-minute opening sequence of "The Bourne Supremacy" was shot in Goa in March this year. "The Bourne Supremacy" is a sequel to "The Bourne Identity" which grossed $213 million worldwide in 2002 and become Universal's top DVD/video title last year.
In April, Hollywood actor and film maker Albert Brooks arrived in New Delhi to meet government officials and plan the shooting of his next film in India. The untitled comedy is set on the subcontinent with a script by Brooks and is to co-star an Indian actress.
Last year, Hollywood director Oliver Stone was in India to shoot scenes for his epic "Alexander." The film was shot on locations in and around Leh and will be released in November.
For the past few years the ministry of information and broadcasting has been encouraging Hollywood productions to be shot in the country. There have been significant changes in the policy on shooting feature films and documentaries in India.
Says film producer Deepak Nayar of the Los Angeles-based Kintop Films, who started his career as a location director for Hollywood crews in India: "I can see a steady improvement in facilities and government cooperation for international film makers who want to make feature films in India."
The Los Angeles-based representative of Ramoji Film City, Chandra Pandula, has relentlessly promoted India as a location for shooting feature films over the past seven years.
"It has been my job to get Hollywood producers to India for we have a stunning range of locations, facilities and cheap labour. Most important, we speaks English" says Pandula.
India with its locations and trained manpower is an attractive destination for film makers from all over the world. "While the whole world wants Indian cinema to come to them, we should induce more international film units to shoot in India," says Pandula.
Among the Indian companies involved in assisting international film crews on locations in India are Ajai Kapoor's Film Services India, Dileep Singh Rathore's Kundalini Pictures and India Take One, managed by Tabrrez Noorni, who has offices in Los Angeles, New Delhi and Jaipur.
Says Kapoor, who worked with Universal Studios on "The Bourne Supremacy's" 11-day shoot in Goa: "Four international films have been shot in India this year and we are expecting another eight films in the next few months."
Location shooting in India has had it share of problems too. Deepa Mehta's production of "Water" was shot down by protestors in early 2000.
Nevertheless, in the last two decades India has attracted several Hollywood crews to shoot in India and films like "Octopussy," "City of Joy," " A Passage to India" and "Holy Smoke" have been shot in various parts of the country.
Hollywood is now becoming aware of the economic impact of allowing its producers to shoot overseas. California's entertainment business generated $33.9 billion in revenues last year and employed 250,000 people.
In a recent compilation of 52 features at the pre-production stage, 28 were to be shot in the U.S., 20 in foreign countries and four on unknown sites. The migration of films is termed "runaway productions" and this phenomenon drains an estimated $10 billion from the US economy.
Hollywood productions are being lured all over the world. Besides India, the other countries or regions films have been migrating to are Canada, the UK, Australia, Thailand, Brazil and eastern Europe. In February this year, Hungarian Culture Minister Istvan Hiller had a message for foreign film makers at the 35th Hungarian Film Week.
"Watch out Prague, Hungary is open for business as Hollywood's premier back lot in Eastern Europe," Hiller said.
Canada has been the major beneficiary of "runaway productions" and Vancouver had production revenues of $ 764 million last year. Montreal has announced that it had $290 million worth of U.S. filming in town while Ontario claimed that the film and TV industry contributed $733.6 million to the provincial economy. The Toronto Ontario Film Office has even opened a new marketing hub in Los Angeles to promote production in Ontario.
The film community of America has spent years trying to convince the US government to keep film production from heading overseas. This summer the Film & Television Action Committee (FTAC), a group of below-the-line Hollywood workers, and the International Cinematographers Guild, asked the US department of commerce to take action against "runaway productions."
FTAC directors Tim McHugh, Don Newman and Gene Warren Jr. in a letter to the US government wrote: "We are in imminent danger of suffering permanent, irreversible damage to our world-renowned film industry as its highly specialised work force, which took nearly a century to build, is dispersed and not renewed. Foreign subsidies do not create new jobs; they merely relocate existing jobs from one country to another."
California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is a big supporter of keeping Hollywood films in Hollywood. His last film "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" was originally to be shot in Vancouver but was shifted to Los Angeles in 2002 after those involved in the film cut their fees to keep the production in the US. In April this year, he promised to put the brakes on runaway production through tax incentives.
Big changes are expected in Hollywood. In the meanwhile, Michael Douglas's $65 million film "Racing The Moon" is already at a pre production stage "� and it's heading for India. l
Lall is the president and CEO of LALL Entertainment, a company based in Los Angeles and New Delhi. He can be contacted at lallentertainment@hotmail.com.
