Apelaboo.....!

Enkayaar, Bollywood Trade News Network

8x10 TASVEER apart from the novelty of interpreting the narrative through the photographs is also characterized by some stunning visuals of locales of Canada that set the tone of the film in the beginning. It is altogether a different issue that the film after setting the tone through the locales meanders along. As a matter of fact the choice of locations play a very important role in setting the tone of the film and no wonder the producers and the directors are at their wits end to select the locations to mesmerize and entice the audience to come back repeatedly into the cinema halls. After all it is the grandeur of the locale that is the initiating factor in setting the tone and tenor of the film.

It has also been observed that if the locations are chosen from India the ability to identify with the location is stronger than if it is a foreign country. RANG DE BASANTI and JAB WE MET are prime examples of the choice of Indian locations that set the tone for the movie. If the producer is able to bring the spectacle of the unknown India within the reach of the audience in the cinema hall then he has won half the battle. But the problem is of searching the locations.

At a time when the industry is virtually shutdown as the films are not releasing, it presents an opportune moment to suggest some of the locations that the cinema fans may be introduced to. It indeed is amazing that even after such a long time the Taj Mahal Hotel of Mumbai has not figured prominently as a back drop in any film. Now that a massive rebuilding exercise is being undertaken to build the heritage block, may be the film fraternity could come forward and used the magnificent facade of Taj as a location. After all, Taj Mahal Hotel along with the Trident and the Oberoi has been conferred with the PRIDE OF INDIA, under the National Tourism Awards for 2007.

MahaParinirvan Express is the train that covers whole of the Buddhist circuit and it has been awarded the most innovative tourism project by the government of India. A film made on the live of Buddha can be shot through the train route covered by this train, or for that matter a love story can also be shot. It was in JOHNY MERA NAAM that the backdrop of Buddhist circuit was used by Dev Anand and it is height time it is revisited again as Buddhism as a religion has great popularity internationally, and if a film is shot covering these spots it sure is going to catch the eye of foreign viewers as well. May be a Richard Gere and a Shilpa Shetty love story to begin with...

While Goa has featured in score of films, how many of he producers are aware about the fact that Karmali Railway Station at Old Goa has been cited with the award of ' best tourist friendly railway station' by the GOI, and should it not for this reason feature in one of the films that is on the drawing board stage. Orissa as a state has yet to be featured with prominence in a Hindi film and may be the time for it has come.

Locations for their sheer novelty dot the landscape of the country, and there is no need to venture outside India, but these locations should be used to market the potential of the country as a tourism destination of its own kind, and if the film industry initiates the process it would ad one more feather in its crown as an industry whose heart beats and vibrates for the betterment of the country.