Why Bollywood movies are shot at foreign locations?

Yash chopra has been making movies and their songs in foreign location since 1970s. He has made movies in England, Scotland, Switzerland, Australia, etc. You would be glad to know that Swiss government has named a lake after Yash Chopra, called Chopra lake. Swiss govt has done this to honour Yash Chopra for his service in improving the tourism business revenue for their country from India. They realized that Bollywood has a huge impact on the mind of the Indians, as we think of those exotic locations shown in the movies while deciding their holiday destinations.

Following are top 4 reasons why Bollywood go to foreign locations for shooting their movies
1) Mutual benefit
Bollywood is making a big budget movies these days and it is critical for them to recover the cost to avoid heavy losses. Theatrical business is just one of the source of revenue for the movie, as they have to look out for other sources like satellite rights, music rights, endorsements, etc. As mentioned in the introduction above, foreign govts have realized that Bollywood making movies in their country is good for their tourism, so they have started giving subsidies to the production houses who come and make movies here. This subsidy has become another source of income for Bollywood movies. So, it is a win-win situation for both sides.
2) Undivided attention of starsProducers plan for foreign shooting schedules in such a way that don't have to do multiple rounds back and forth from India. They plan for extended schedules which helps them in getting undivided attention from their cast members, since they will have very less distractions to reduce their productivity. Most Bollywood lead actors are not known for their discipline and punctuality, but if these actors have to stay in their nearby hotels, they are not likely to have excuses like traffic as all of them can be taken together to a shooting place in a shared vehicle like a bus.
3) Travel expense is cheaperIts hard to believe but travel cost is cheaper in terms of both time and money as compared to travelling in India and doing multiple rounds to other countries. Countries like UK, Switzerland, France don't just have excellent public transport system, but overall cheaper logistics arrangement hassles. Due to which, it becomes easier for a movie production unit move from one shooting location to the other
4) Government of foreign countries take care of Indian film makersGovts not only give subsidy to Bollywood production houses, but they also makes it easy for film production unit by providing them with easy clearances and logistics. So, it not only make Indian film makers comfortable, but it also makes that foreign country as an attractive option for these movie production units.

'Zindagi na milegi dobara' was shot in Spain, and it has boosted Spain tourism revenue from Indian tourists by 32%. Recently Rockstar was shot in Prague, which reminded Indians realize it a new holiday destination. 'Salaam Namaste' and 'Dil Chahta hai' was shot in Australia, and these movies made Australia looked like a dream location. Rakesh Roshan said that he shot 'Krishh' in Singapore because their govt gave even those permissions and clearances to them, which even Indian govt didn't. Don2 is going to be released this month, and it has been shot extensively in Germany, where as 'Ek tha tiger' has been shot in over seven countries including Istanbul, South Africa, etc, and is going to be released in more than 24 countries. You can imagine what kind of business potential these movies have.

Top ten current trends of movie promotion in bollywood

I was watching Komal Nahata's show 'Business of Bollywood', where he was talking about current and future trends of marketing in Bollywood. It really got me interested in how things have changed in Bollywood when it comes to movie promotions. So, i will list down top 10 current trends and 2-3 probable future trends in movie promotions

Top 10 Current trends 

1) Do something different
Producers have realized in past few years that audience need to convinced over and over that this new movie has something people have not seen before. So, the promotions of their movie need to designed in such a way that movie should look fresh, impressive and original. This technique has been used quite regularly in past decade.
2) Increase curiosity 
Generally in Bollywood only a few genres works well at box-office, which includes comedy, action and romance. So, if you need to promote a movie of a different genre, such as a super hero genre, then you need to build curiosity in people. This is not necessarily a new technique, but has found a new meaning this year with Ra.One. Ra.One can take credit for rediscovering people's taste in super hero genre, and making people really curious about it.
3) Budget of a promotion 
Production houses have allocated insane money for promotion of their movie from the movie budget. As per reports, Ra.One makers have spent around 35-40 crores on the promotion of a movie.
4) Creative ways
Producers no longer settle for only using old school movie promotion ways, they are constantly innovating different ways to promote their movies. Recently 'Dirty picture' did live webcast of their music launch.
5) Popularize dialogs
Not necessarily a new technique, it is seen very little these days. 'Don 2' promos have been based on popularizing the dialogs of the movie.
6) Realize that internet is an important medium
Movie makers have realized that today's youth have spent a lot of time on internet, so some movies like 'that girl in yellow boots' was promoted only on internet.
7) All movies cannot be promoted on internet at all
Movie like 'Sahib biwi aur gulam' was promoted in small villages than internet, since makers realized that movie has the flavors of small towns and villages
8) Gaming
Ra.One can take credit for popularizing this technique, since Ra.one makers even released their game on Sony's play station. 'Don 2' games are also going to be released
9) Comic books
Ra.One again can take credit for popularizing this promotional technique. They started releasing their graphical novel online chapter by chapter 3 months ago. 'Don 2' comic books are also going to be released
10) First posters
Many movies like khiladi 786, Ek tha tiger, Rowdy Rathore are revealing the first posters 7-8 months before the release to generate more interest.

Future trends

1) Film trailers on mobile
Promotion agencies will be pushing their movie promos on your mobile as an MMS, which you can see anytime at your leisure
2) Interaction with stars will increase
Production houses will make sure that movie stars (who are popular with the crowd) are interacting more with the crowd
3) Promotion budgets will be more than film budgets 
More and more promotions will give rise to more and more money spend on the promotion of the movie.
4) Promotion will begin several months before increase
Production house may start promoting their movies 2-3 years before its release

Top 4 reasons why people Ra.One is getting cynical hate

Ra.One has received a lot of negativity and hate nationwide for correct and incorrect reasons. Though we can always debate what makes a reason good or what makes it bad, I'll list down some of the most popular reasons why Ra.One is getting hated by critics. This is purely my assessment, and not copied from anywhere else.

1) They think that bollywood cannot make super hero movies
Yes, i think that is the origin and basic reason of hate. It's that negative prejudice that is fueling this negativity. Bollywood is not good enough to make a movie like 'The Dark Knight' or even 'Transformer'. Hollywood has the technology and a skill to make a super hero movie but bollywood can't. Which means that bollywood shouldn't even try to make a movie of different genre. Well, now if bollywood has made a movie of this genre, then lets see if it matches up to the standards of our favorite movie (or the most famous one) of this genre. Nope, it is not a serious movie, superhero is making spoof of himself, he is not saving the world, oh my god he is dancing, and he can't even fight on his own. This is totally shit movie, and it is also inspired one. Yes, we were right, bollywood can't make a super hero movie and they should stop doing it.

2) They have more knowledge of movies than an average Indian movie watcher because they watch Hollywood movies
Bollywood is all about hero and heroine dancing in the street or around the trees. There is no story, and even if there is any, it's all the same. Hollywood movies have the real stories, their movies shows the reality, their movies are more logical and anyone who watches Hollywood knows what the movie making is about. So, since we have been watching Hollywood movies and we have to suffer bollywood movies sometimes, we can easily make out the issues in bollywood movies. It is so predictable, repetitive and stale, sometimes we want to puke on bollywood movie even when there is no reason to do so. We want a change in Indian cinema, and we want the indian cinema to be of the same quality. By disliking the bollywood movies, we are trying to be bring that change in the mindset of people. We are those agents of change since we know more about movies. It doesn't matter even if we watch those movies on pirated DVDs.

3) They can understand the technical aspects of movie-making
It's not simple to understand but we have managed. We can read it in Wikipedia, and we have read a lot of articles of internet. Now, then since we understand the different aspects of movie like 'screenplay', 'cinematography', etc, then how do we flaunt it. After all, we know more than an average movie goer, so people have to know it. If we just say that movie was boring, etc then people will think that we may not think that we are intelligent. But if we use such heavy words in our review and show our intellect, then people will notice and think highly of us. Now since if we try to use our knowledge on Hollywood movies, then some people are definitely going to question us, who knows may be we'll encounter some more educated one. But, Bollywood movies are easy target, plus there are less people to question our cinematic acumen. We talk about directors more than actors, because that's what is more important in Hollywood movies. Now, Ra.one has released, and there is a lot of buzz around it, and if we can establish that Ra.one has got some technical aspects wrong, then we can easily establish ourselves.

4) SRK is in the movie
SRK is going a movie on this genre? what does he know about it? He has done only romantic comedies, and so what if he has spend more than 2 decades on acting? We know more about these movies than SRK. SRK is going to get it totally wrong, also the director is not a known name. He can never touch those heights that Hollywood has achieved.

5) Movie has so much publicity
Any success this movie has got is because of publicity this movie has had. SRK had tried to fool the public, and he is most likely to achieve this target. We are not going to be fall in this trap. So, what if hollywood movies also promote their movies 10-12 month before the release, it doesn't mean that bollywood should do the same. SRK is just playing with people's sentiments. We anyways hate him, so lets get our reviews ready even before the movie is release in the theater. As soon as the movie will be released, we are going to spread this negativity about the movie, and make sure that no one else repeat this mistake.

Top 5 things i liked about Ra One

Irrespective of what cynical adult male of India says, Ra One did had some original ideas. It was definitely a step forward in a new direction in Indian cinema. Here are the top five things that I liked about Ra One.

1) Origin of the super villian and super hero
First of all, this is probably the first Indian movie which has both Super Hero and Super Villain. Now the super villain comes first straight from the game due to a bug that is there in the systems of the company which has developed that game. G One comes out of the game in the similar way but that process was not totally revealed, as it as assumed but not questioned by the characters in the movie. SRK's character Shekhar sold the enormity of the fact that Ra One had come out. Also how the characters came to realize that something had come out of the game, and how Kareena refused to believe and understand what had happened. I have read online reviews in which people being too harsh and they have even mentioned that the story has been taken from some of the Hollywood movies. I think that this is not only false, it is stupid also, and it comes across that people are trying to be funny, witty and sound intelligent, but in the process they sound insecure and conscious.

2) Subtle emotions, less melodramatic
You won't see Kareena and his son crying buckets when SRK's character Shekhar dies. There is a sad song but it just moves the story and characters forward. Last thing you want to see in a theater is people sulking and sobbing after seeing what is happening on the screen. You want to have a good time watching the movie, and in this audience sitting with you play a huge role in it. Ra One makers have shown that you can tell a story, engage the audience without putting cheap melodramatic moments in the movie. I knew before watching the movie that SRK's first character dies in the movie, but was scared of feeling emotional and manipulated by the drama that could have unfolded, had the makers of the movie decided to take the usual way. It was so refreshing to see those strong but intricate and engaging scenes in the movie getting over without much of a melodrama.

3) Comedy and spoofs on super heroes
It may be the one of the very few movies who had so many fun and comic moments. Usually you would see that super hero movies are quite serious, so much that they even stopped being fun. Ra One actually had a lot of fun moments in it. First when Shekhar's scenes when he tried to tell his son that he is also the 'dude' his son wants him to be, then when Shekhar was telling his game idea to his team, when G One arrived at the airport near taxi stand, and then later when G One was controlled by Shekhar's son Prateik. These are some of my favorite scenes in the movie. There were other comic scenes as well, but these were my favorites. Apart from these, there is one scene when Shekhar's son is dreaming of a game which had the villain at the mercy of the super hero of that game. This scene is a spoof on some super heroes and its very funny.

4) Songs
'Chamak Challo' is a picture perfect song with ultra cool choreography. It just takes the experience of this movie to another level. I just loved the choreography in this song. Besides, 'Dildara' and Criminal are also good and picturization is equally fine. In fact, Dildara is one of my favorite song, as it is so melodious that you would want to hear it again and again.

5) SRK's acting
SRK is playing two roles in the movie: One is of the character named Shekhar who hails from South India, speaks Tamil, and tries to mature his son so that he understands life, and then he later play G One who is a character out of the video game. SRK has once again proved that he is the real risk taker and experimenter in the bollywood industry. He could have easily done another Romantic movie and had sleep walked through those roles. but he decided to take a risk which was really impressive. Considered by many other big stars in the industry as a brilliant method actor and someone who can take risk and set trends.

Ra. One Story and Review: Bold and Fantastic effort

I watched Ra. One the next day of its release. Believe me, I had to search three multiplexes before i finally managed to get two tickets in one of them, and for that also I had to wait for around 2 hours. Such was the curiosity of the movie that i was not willing to wait for next day to watch it. Some of my friends have said good things about it and some have said bad things about it. But if you have been reading Ra One reviews on internet, then it seems that there is no one who wants to say good things about.

Any blog i read on internet, i see people bashing this movie left right and center. If someone try to bring up a point that movie belongs to a new genre and the effort should be appreciated, then there words are shot down. Bashers are saying that movie has ripped off ideas from many super hero movies from Hollywood. Some are even trying to sound cool by using heavy technical words like 'screenplay was not crisp' or similar funny things. Some are saying that heavy publicity has brought more harm than good to the movie, while some are saying that this movie has not lived up to the standards of Hollywood super hero movies like 'The Dark Knight'.


Some of you must have been wondering whether the movie is really that bad and whether it is worth your time and money or not. It is so easy to get influenced by what you read online and you may not even recognize the bias in the author's head about a certain kind of movie. I am going to make an attempt to explain my take on movie and hopefully help you understand (and appreciate) the movie better. Let's get into the story of the movie first.


Shekhar is a senior video game developer who leads a responsible and skillful team. He is well respected at his workplace but his own kid, Prateik, doesn't go along well with him. He makes efforts to impress his son without any success. Shekhar's company has made remarkable breakthrough in terms of technical advancements, as they are able to bring any body from digital world to real life so that people can perceive them as real. Meanwhile Shekhar comes to know that Prateik likes bad characters more than good ones. Even though he doesn't think that evil should win, but he decides to make a video game, Ra. One, in which bad guy Ra One is more powerful than good guy G One, to impress his son. Game is then officially released by the company he works in, and his son really likes the game. Prateik plays the game but he didn't complete it as he has to go. Ra One doesn't liked the fact that Prateik has stopped the game in the middle and he threatens to kill him by coming out of the game to real world. Since the game has been developed in the same environment where that advance technology is developed, Ra One comes out of the game to the real world. Ra One tries to search Prateik, kills Shekhar and one of his colleague in the process, and creates havoc in their world. Another colleague of Shekhar manage to bring G One out of the game so that he can save Prateik. So, whether G One manages to save Prateik and how the story unfolds from here is what follows in the movie.


Personally, apart from the little bit underwhelming climax, i found nothing wrong in the movie. I enjoyed the movie thoroughly and wasn't bored for a single minute. Story is fantastic and original, and SRK is absolutely at his charming best in this movie. Kareena looks stunning and gorgeous, and Arjun Rampal has managed to hold his own in the movie despite of cool special effects. Songs were good, emotions were subtle and not over dramatic. This is the first bollywood movie which has both super hero as well as super villian. There were lot of whistles in the theatre when GOne came on the screen first time, and i could lot of people laughing in comedy scenes. It means that people have enjoyed the movie despite some negativity and bad word of mouth about the movie.On top of everything, Rajnikanth appeared in one scene in his 'Chitti' avatar to steal the show with his mesmerizing presence.



I would give 8.5 out of 10 to this movie. Only place where i felt it could have more was the climax, which is the only place i felt that movie was not very enjoyable for me, though it wasn't that terrible either. I just don't get why people are bashing this movie to prove their worth. For a while i felt that i was the only one who liked it.