Despite no public fee for any location, Finland has not been a preferred choice for Bollywood filmmakers.
Helsinki:
Bollywood filmmakers are not keen onshooting in Finland because they find it too expensive andFinland has less incentives to offer than other countries,according to Finnish tourism officials.
"The rules in Finland are really strict for filmmakers notonly in official terms but also in financial terms. The Indianfilmmakers find it expensive to shoot here as we can't offerthem incentives which they get in other countries and hencespend less there," Jaakko Lehtone, Director of Finnish TourismBoard said.
In 2007, Finland joined the 'Welcome Bollywood' wagon whenit upped the stakes in welcoming the film industry to shoot inits country without any public fee for any location, but noBollywood movie has been shot in Finland since then.
Finland offers beautiful locations as 68 per cent of theland is preserved forest with over 2,00,000 lakes.
Lehtone believes Bollywood's lack of interest in Finlandalso reflects on the tourist flow from India.
"This is also one of the reasons that we have lesstourists from India as compared to other countries becauseIndian population gets to see the beauty of other places intheir films and hence they are more inspired by Eiffel toweror Statue of Liberty than Helsinki," he said.
"Bollywood is a huge film industry and we would like towelcome Bollywood filmmakers to shoot here. Unfortunately, ithasn't happened so far. But talks are on in Finland tomaterialise some incentives for filmmakers so we can expectsome projects in future," said Teija Raninen, FilmCommissioner at West Finland Film Commission.
"The rules in Finland are really strict for filmmakers notonly in official terms but also in financial terms. The Indianfilmmakers find it expensive to shoot here as we can't offerthem incentives which they get in other countries and hencespend less there," Jaakko Lehtone, Director of Finnish TourismBoard said.
In 2007, Finland joined the 'Welcome Bollywood' wagon whenit upped the stakes in welcoming the film industry to shoot inits country without any public fee for any location, but noBollywood movie has been shot in Finland since then.
Finland offers beautiful locations as 68 per cent of theland is preserved forest with over 2,00,000 lakes.
Lehtone believes Bollywood's lack of interest in Finlandalso reflects on the tourist flow from India.
"This is also one of the reasons that we have lesstourists from India as compared to other countries becauseIndian population gets to see the beauty of other places intheir films and hence they are more inspired by Eiffel toweror Statue of Liberty than Helsinki," he said.
"Bollywood is a huge film industry and we would like towelcome Bollywood filmmakers to shoot here. Unfortunately, ithasn't happened so far. But talks are on in Finland tomaterialise some incentives for filmmakers so we can expectsome projects in future," said Teija Raninen, FilmCommissioner at West Finland Film Commission.
