Finland has offered a fee-free invitation to Bollywood filmmakers to shoot on location in the country.
NEW DELHI: Finland has offered a fee-free invitation to Bollywood filmmakers to shoot on location in the country -- described by Lonely Planet as a 'breath of fresh air on a European adventure.'
While most Indian filmmakers pride themselves in shooting on exotic locations untouched by tourism, such projects come at a cost including a fee for shooting in public places.
Last year, the US government introduced a fee of $150-500 a day for shooting on locations inside national parks, including the Grand Canyon, where parts of films like 'Bride and Prejudice' and 'Jeans' were made.
"There is normally no need to pay" for shooting films in public locations in Finland, Finpro India head Seppo I Keranen said, adding that the country offers 24 hours daylight for over two months in summer and 68 per cent of the land is preserved forest with 200,000 lakes.
Keranen, whose organisation helps Finnish companies go global, said he was looking to set up meetings between Indian filmmakers and their Finnish counterparts at next month's 'Find 2007' -a networking and matchmaking conference- in Goa.
"Film shooters will be coming to Goa and we hope the professionals will discuss and agree to cooperate with each other," he said.
Keranen, who also heads the Indo-Finnish Business Forum that aims at making partnerships possible across fields including tourism, said the best thing about making films in Finland was that it was just six hours away by Finnair's direct flights to Helsinki from New Delhi.
Non-stop services from Mumbai, India's film capital, to Helsinki are scheduled to start in June.
While there are no charges for film shooting, there is, however, one condition -- Don't destroy nature.
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