‘Slumdog effect’ brings stars flocking to India

Monday, March 16. Perhaps it's because Bollywood is finally becoming technically proficient, or perhaps it's just because of the astounding success of Slumdog Millionaire. Whatever the reason, British filmmakers are flocking to India.

The Times reports that after a long courtship between the British and Indian film industries, India is "suddenly crawling with British film-makers looking for a slice of exhilarating, cost-effective exoticism". The invasion has been abetted by a treaty signed last year by the Indian and British governments that offered incentives for film crews to work in each other's countries. But it is the 'Slumdog effect' that has really boosted the phenomenon.

"Its [Slumdog’s] massive international success has indicated that people are more open to stories from other worlds than we might have been led to believe," says one film producer.

The Times reports that several India-based films are in the pipeline. They include Indian Summer, a love epic set in 1947 in the mould of Baz Luhrman's Australia, and West is West, a sequel to East is East, the hit 1999 comedy set in Salford.

And it's not just the British film industry that is being charmed by Bollywood. A host of Hollywood stars have also been turning their attention to India, according to a report in the Guardian. Will Smith has been a regular on Indian TV recently (apparently earning a fortune while doing so), Sylvester Stallone will appear in Kambakht Ishq, a film about an Indian stuntman who takes America by storm, and Kylie Minogue was recently paid more than £100,000 a day for a week's work for an Indian production called Blue. Even American gangsta rapper Snoop Dogg has appeared in the Hindi comedy Singh is Kinng; Dogg said last year that he anticipated making "more movies with some of my Bollywood homies".

FIRST POSTED MARCH 16, 2009