Bollywood Enters Australia

Just watched Salaam Namaste this weekend - and was, for the first time, glad to not see any more of Europe in a Bollywood movie. Big banner Bollywood movies are notorious for shooting ‘dream-sequences’ in (mostly) Switzerland or London. This movie - a drastic change from the usual Bollywood pattern - was shot entirely on-location in Melbourne, Victoria.

Tourism Victoria, welcomed Bollywood - this appeared in their March 2005 newsletter:

"With a growing middle class, estimated to number between 50 million and
150 million, India has significant potential as a tourism market for
Victoria . There has been steady growth in visitor numbers to Victoria
over the past 10 years, with a 30 per cent increase last year and
average annual growth of 18 per cent"

Bollywood has helped boost tourism for many countries in the past– Bollywood has also been wooed by many countries in the past… Australia takes its turn now!