With relations between Turkey and India starting to bear fruit, Indian producers, who shoot around 200 films abroad every year, are set to come and film in Turkey. This move is expected to attract around 2 million tourists from India, which has around 2.1 billion cinemagoers, according to a report in the Turkish Akşam newspaper. With the support of the Glorious DMC Tourism Agency and its partner in India, Novel Events, a group of 15 people, including Bollywood producers, scriptwriters and actors will come to Turkey on Nov. 16 to explore places in Istanbul, Cappadocia and Göcek.
After China, India is second in the world with 2.1 billion cinemagoers, Glorious DMC's Sales and Marketing Director Ebru Eroskay said. India is one of the biggest film producer countries in the world with 1,500 to 2,000 films being produced annually, out of which 200 are being shot out of the country, Eroskay said, adding that they want to get a share from this market."If Indian producers find Turkey suitable, it will make a serious contribution to the economy," she said. "The film is scheduled to start shooting in March. The budget is $2 million. We are also negotiating for a new $20 million project."
Pointing out that Indian films would also make a significant contribution to the tourism sector, Eroskay said a famous film named "Life of Pi" has managed to increase the tourist flow by 43 percent to Taiwan, where the film was shot. "After 'Krrish,' which was shot in Singapore, came to the big screen, the number of Indian tourists in Singapore went up from 6 to 7 million. The number of Indian tourists coming to Spain has increased by 65 percent since the film 'Zindagi Na Milegi' Dobara was released," she said.
"Turkey aims to attract 2 million tourists from India, which sends 22 million tourists abroad annually, in 2023. Movies would have a big impact in reaching this goal, because Indian tourists like to go to the countries where their movie stars are," she added.
The Indian film industry, which has been competing with Hollywood, is divided into three separate divisions. Since the movie studios are in Bombay, the films translated in India are called Bollywood products. A second studio center is Kodambakkam. Films produced in the Tamul language in this area of the city of Chennai are called Kollywood, while films produced in the Telugu language in the state of Andhra Pradesh in the east are called Tollywood products.
