Risk of location burnout in Bollywood tactics

Bollywood filming at Larnach Castle, Otago. The industry has made more than 100 films in New Zealand. Picture / Otago Daily Times

A New Zealand film industry advocate says a glut of low-budget Bollywood films shot in New Zealand could lead to "location burnout", risking the country's prospects for higher-budget films.

Judith McCann, head of Film New Zealand, said the country should be pushing for high-budget movies from India rather than a quantity of the lower-end Bollywood productions.

She said while marketing New Zealand's landscape was a major plank in attracting overseas movies and had spin-offs for tourism, she was not in favour of encouraging a large number of lower-budget movies.

However, a producer who specialises in Bollywood in New Zealand says the industry makes 1000 films a year, and it should be courted so that New Zealand is not so reliant on the more sporadic American blockbusters.

Producer Ajayshri Vasisht said there had been a steady flow of work since 1998, when Trade NZ started promoting New Zealand, but it had since dwindled.

"If there is a lull in productions from the West - as we've seen in the last couple of years since Narnia ended - you have to have something to sustain the industry.

"If there was a strategy in place to court Bollywood - which is the largest in output - there would be fewer times for companies to sit idle."

On a state visit to India last year Prime Minister Helen Clark encouraged links, saying "Bollywood diplomacy" was an important link.

She said the hit 2000 Bollywood film Say You Love Me, shot in Queenstown, was partly credited with boosting Indian tourists from 3000 a year in 2000 to 18,000 by last year.

"The Government wanted to acknowledge the success of the film and what it has done to strengthen the relationship between the two countries," she said when she presented a certificate to the film's stars, Hrithik Roshan and Amisha Patel.

Ms McCann said New Zealand Film "keeps in touch with people", but in general Bollywood had no real bonuses for the New Zealand film industry because they brought their own crews.

Bollywood also went through phases of favouring various locations, such as the Swiss Alps, but concentration of filming in the Rockies in Canada had "shot the Rockies to death for low-budget musicals".

"Where New Zealand has a better chance is in the emerging market of more serious bigger budget films India is producing where they are looking to film in other parts of the world for more than just landscape scenes. They are not traditional Bollywood, which are lower budget."

Bollywood was a $2 billion a year industry and produced up to 1000 movies a year, of which about 10 per cent had budgets of more than $US10 million, Ms McCann said.

More than 100 Bollywood movies had been shot in New Zealand, but business had tapered off in the past few years, despite the initial rewards of a Trade and Enterprise NZ push from 1998 to 2002.

Mr Vasisht said he was trying to secure two major movies at the moment. However, he was up against major competitors from other countries that were closer to India.

"We are suffering from a high dollar and cheaper competition from Argentina, the Seychelles, South Africa and Malaysia. Anywhere that is less distance with a cheaper wage rate gets the business."

Initiatives such as tax incentives and encouraging joint productions between New Zealand and Indian companies could help.

"If New Zealand does a good job of it now, there could be dividends in five years. But it's difficult for people here to get their heads round, because they don't really have the contacts in the area."

New Zealand producers also struggle with a difference in working styles of New Zealand and India.

In March 2002 Paul Fairless, of post-production house Images Post, went to Chennai and Mumbai for the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry's Frames conference as part of a Trade NZ offensive on the Indian film sector.

He got a lot of business as a result, he said, but it was hard work.

"When we got back we were full of hope and promise. We got a few jobs and it was fun and interesting, but it is hard. They have a different work ethic and way of operating. The wages of crews here is way above what they have in India, and the laws are stricter. Since then I haven't been actively pursuing or doing Bollywood-related work because there are easier places to get the work from. We do work for the UK and USA, and India is not a prime focus."

Raj Varma, now an actor, was New Zealand line producer on three shoots in 2002-2003 of six to 12 days each - the 12-day shoot visited six or seven locations.

"The American productions come in and pay thousands, the Indians will hire a van and drive around, jump out and shoot without a permit."

Mr Fairless said production companies such as Kuran in the South Island, which had won a Trade NZ commendation for attracting Indian films to New Zealand, were better suited for the work, because they knew the right people and could explain New Zealand's rules better.