India’s equivalent of the Oscars, the Indian Film Academy Awards, will be biven out this weekend in an unlikely locale: Madrid. It’s part of Spain’s campaign to lure more Indian travelers to the country.
Spain, which is the world’s third-most visited country, is looking to find new markets rather than just competing for traditional northern European visitors. There’s even a Lonely Planet guide to Spain aimed at the Indian market.
But it appears that the big spark is in getting Bollywood to shoot films in Spain, so that the country becomes more familiar in India. A hit 2011 film, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, about three friends on a pre-nuptial road trip across Spain, led to an immediate doubling in the number of Indian visitors.
The film, shot with help from Turespana, included scenes in the annual Tomatina tomato fight, the running of the bulls, and other ‘typical’ Spanish settings including Barcelona. Turespana is hoping for more like that. While other Indian films have been filmed in Spain since, none has been as big.
For more details, from TheLocal.es, click HERE
