Woody Allen admitted last year that he's taken to shooting in Europe, as he cannot afford New York anymore. But look at every second K-Jo saga or Yash Raj blockbuster and you'd think the Big Apple was as common as Matheran or Mount Abu. Another incredible news that came in last year was about Disney’s most promising project, "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides", that releases in May this year. The Jack Sparrow cult film has suffered budget cuts amounting to more than a third of the originally decided amount. And even as we swallowed this piece of information, we learnt that Farhan Akhtar's spent a cool crore to fly down tomatoes from Portugal to Spain to shoot the 'Tomatino' festival in his latest, "Zindagi Na Milege Dobara". But a crore is hardly shocking, since the producers of 'All the best' spent three crores just to shoot a song sequence last year. So are our desi film-makers getting high on moolah while their LA counterparts check into financial rehab? And is the buck worth the bang?
Bollywood's extravagance has been questioned often. I mean, how does it matter if a love story is shot in New Zealand or Nagpur? If the 'Tomatino' festival is being re-created at a time when even Spain doesn’t celebrate it, why not film it at a studio in Mumbai? Every clue points in one direction: Bollywood has big bucks at its disposal and is not afraid to spend a few millions to wow audiences. Remember the time when Samantha Fox doing a jig with our Bappi-da created quite a stir? Well, with Kylie Minogue, Sylvester Stallone, Ben Kingsley, Nicholas Cage and Shakira all appearing in Indian movies - in addition to a slew of technicians, SFX and makeup experts - Indian filmmakers have surely gone beyond their regular duty-free shopping.
Firang actors and foreign locations apart, Bollywood's opulence is also evident from how much it spends when shooting on home turf. In fact, certain domestic locations have become so popular that they're boosting the state’s economy. Point of fact: India's favourite unwind destination, Goa! Right from the Golmaal series to "Endhiran- the Robot", Goa has played host to many recent movies, including "All The Best", "Honeymoon Travel", "Guzarish", "The Coffin Maker", "Peter Gaya Kaam Se" and many other regional films. Also, in March this year, this beach town saw over 20 simultaneous film shoots in progress. As per latest reports, the business volume of film shoots itself adds over Rs 100 crores to the Goan economy. Surely something for the local sarkar to drink to?
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