Let me fly you

ENTERTAINMENT: An enterprising not-so-successful actor lends his hand to ensure success for films shot overseas.

N Ramji has a way of putting people in the right, and sometimes unusual, place. He recently transported top Indian actors Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, Vidya Balan and R Madhavan to Istanbul. Why?

Well, Ramji, who is the MD of Travel Masters, makes a living out of arranging shoots abroad "" from organising the ticketing to shoot permissions to contracting technicians and extras "" and the trip to Istanbul was for the shooting of Mani Ratnam's forthcoming film Guru.

A south Indian film actor, Ramji worked in nearly 50 films in a span of almost five years, but admits to being unsuccessful as an actor. He then joined a travel agency where the request of a filmmaker friend to arrange tickets for a film crew triggered the idea of combining travel and films. Ramji opened his own travel agency in Chennai in 1991.

Today, the Rs 50 crore company, which has organised over 650 film shoots in different parts of the world, boasts branches in Bangalore, Madurai and Mysore besides Mumbai.

The company organises shoots for nearly 15-20 films every year in diverse destinations, as film makers experiment with Egypt, Tasmania, Khirgistan and even Ireland, besides Russia, New Zealand, Australia and some of the Southeast Asian countries.

"The film shoot of Rajnikant's biggest hit Chandramukhi was organised by us in Kapadokia, a place near Turkey," says Ramji.

He had also organised the film shoot of Chachi 420 (in its original avatar) in South Africa and Rakesh Roshan's blockbuster and Hrithik Roshan's first big hit Kaho Na Pyar Hai in New Zealand.

"I personally supervise everything and visit destinations at least two months in advance," explains Ramji. And no, he does not miss acting at all.