Bollywood filmmakers are not keen on shooting in Finland because they find it too expensive and Finland has less incentives to offer than other countries, according to Finnish tourism officials.
"The rules in Finland are really strict for filmmakers not only in official terms but also in financial terms. The Indian filmmakers find it expensive to shoot here as we can't offer them incentives which they get in other countries and hence spend less there," Jaakko Lehtone, Director of Finnish Tourism Board told PTI.
In 2007, Finland joined the 'Welcome Bollywood' wagon when it upped the stakes in welcoming the film industry to shoot in its country without any public fee for any location, but no Bollywood movie has been shot in Finland since then.
Finland offers beautiful locations as 68 per cent of the land is preserved forest with over 2,00,000 lakes.
Lehtone believes Bollywood's lack of interest in Finland also reflects on the tourist flow from India.
"This is also one of the reasons that we have less tourists from India as compared to other countries because Indian population gets to see the beauty of other places in their films and hence they are more inspired by Eiffel tower or Statue of Liberty than Helsinki," he said.
"Bollywood is a huge film industry and we would like to welcome Bollywood filmmakers to shoot here. Unfortunately, it hasn't happened so far. But talks are on in Finland to materialise some incentives for filmmakers so we can expect some projects in future," said Teija Raninen, Film Commissioner at West Finland Film Commission.
