LINING UP FOR LEAD ROLE

Keen to tap Indian tourists, competition rises amongst global destinations to lure Indian film studios to choose them as locations for their films

- Ranvir Nayar Varsha Singh

It is par for the course for a film to be taught as a subject in a film school, but it is quite another thing for a film to be taken up as a study material in a business school curriculum. This is precisely what has happened with Hindi film, Zoya Akhtar's Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011) that is being taught as a marketing case study in Spain. For, the film, that turned out to be a blockbuster and was the first Indian film to be largely located in Spain, has led to a 65 pc rise in number of Indian tourists visiting the southern European nation.

And the numbers have kept on rising ever since. Eager to keep the momentum growing, the Spanish tourism officials have been in contact with the Indian film studios to get more and more films signed up.

"Tourism Office of Spain has indeed been active in this regard, along with the Commercial Office of Spain in India. We have been participating in many events about film tourism and conducting meetings with various well-known producers in India. We discuss with them various incentives and locational advantage that Spain offers. Additionally, we also facilitate their communication with the Spanish local bodies in the audiovisual sector to help take the projects ahead," Elisa Robles Fraga, Director, Tourism Office of Embassy of Spain in India tells India Outbound.