Bollywood film producers select Sri Lanka to shoot eight films
Posted on September 11th, 2023
Courtesy The Daily News
Three renowned Bollywood film producers have selected Sri Lanka to shoot eight of their films soon giving a tremendous destination mileage for Sri Lanka.
Film Producer and Head of Film Content at Jio Studios of Reliance Group, Shobha Sant revealed that 8 scripts are already in hand to begin work in Sri Lanka and emphasized that she was amazed by the beauty of Sri Lanka and touched by the hospitality, the warmth and personal attention of the people.
She further said the food, culture and the environment is very similar to India and with the right support from the local film industry and government, they will be able to build a mutually sustainable industry.
I will make a very sincere effort for a film shoot here very soon” added Sant.
She said this to the local media last Saturday when for the first time Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) invited these three renowned Bollywood film producers: Shobha Sant was joined by Angad Dev Singh, Film Producer and CEO of Tiger Baby Production House and Karan Joshi, Film Producer and CEO of Emmy Entertainment to Sri Lanka.
The trio was accompanied by Sri Lankan film legend Chandran Rathnam, Chairman Film Location Services. The trio subsequently visited film locations in Colombo, Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, Ella, Hambantota and Kalutara. Chalaka Gajabahu, Chairman SLTPB said one of their new key focus areas is to project Sri Lanka as a film location venue to the Indian movie market as it could generate high foreign revenue as an average budget for a Bollywood film is about INR 35Crores (over one billion Lankan rupees).
When shooting a movie in Sri Lanka, the country could get a considerable portion of that revenue via providing food, accommodation, transport and many other logistics.”
Gajabahu pointed out that in addition to gaining foreign exchange, when such Bollywood films are screened world over Sri Lankan locations too get the world’s attention particularly among the Indians. This will help us to further attract them more visitors to Sri Lanka.”