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January, 2010 New Zealand had "suddenly woken up" to the huge tourism spinoffs of the popular Bollywood movie industry, New Zealand Bollywood line producer Uma Singh said this month."In the last 16 years we've shot 130 (Bollywood) movies in Queenstown and Christchurch mostly, another six or seven in Wellington, eight in Auckland and three in Rotorua," said Singh, co-owner of Kuran (NZ) Ltd. "New Zealand didn't want to know us then they suddenly woke up. Our (New Zealand) government was losing a lot of Indian tourists (to other markets) and now they realise," Singh said. New Zealand had been the location for between 15 to 20 Bollywood films a year several years ago, until Indian film-makers were scoring better deals in competing locations, such as Canada, Australia and Britain. However, the New Zealand Government was now right behind the burgeoning industry with Film New Zealand, Tourism New Zealand, other authorities and hotels offering assistance wherever they could, Singh said. The Queenstown Lakes District Council had also waived location fees for the latest Bollywood movie to be shot in the Wakatipu, I Hate Luv Stories, which began shooting on the Queenstown Bay waterfront late this month. Tourism New Zealand spokeswoman Cas Carter said this latest Bollywood movie would be the biggest yet in terms of impact because New Zealand would actually feature as a "character" in the script and not just a backdrop. "We're expecting this one to be enormous from a tourism perspective for us," Ms Carter said. "Bollywood films are a huge help in terms of profiling New Zealand as a visitor destination. "They're so popular, they raise a huge audience." Singh said 70 Indian cast and crew would be in Queenstown for this next shoot and a total of 124 locals, including six children, had been hired as extras, mainly for an engagement party scene. Shooting would take in the Queenstown waterfront, St Peter's Church grounds, Glenorchy, Paradise and the Kingston Flyer. The leading lady, Sonam Kapoor, famous in India, had a "very famous" father, while the uncle of the lead male Imran Khan (not the Pakistan cricket legend) was also a very famous actor in India, Singh said. Billions of Indians around the world would watch the movie and the industry was worth "big money" for the Queenstown district. The stars would be kept under wraps while in Queenstown as in the past busloads of Indian tourists had followed the crew from Dunedin and Christchurch, waiting in the foyers of their hotels when they arrived, Singh said. "Hotels have had fans wanting to sleep in the same room or stay in the same hotel after famous actor Hritik Roshan left (from a shoot in New Zealand)."
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