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But I have no complaints if film tourism brings in revenue to the city. In fact, let us pander to such demand by creating decent film-oriented tours like those in Hollywood or the numerous Universal Studios scattered across the U.S. Serious film buffs wouldn’t mind walking through Ramgarh made famous by Sholay or Champaner, Lagaan’s Ramgarh.
Every period movie has enough theme-park potential. Have regularly scheduled dance sequences from Hum Aapke Hai Kaun and the public will go crazy. Let them participate and shake a hip with the hired extras and star look alikes for few rupees more.
Each successful movie has a hidden potential for exploiting the gullible tourist. It doesn’t help being too uptight regards such ventures if it generates enough revenue for the doddering film industry.
Of course, real-life neighborhoods like Hiranandani Gardens can be greatly encumbered because they are after all residential locations as well. An occasional film shoot might not be too troublesome but hordes of tourists that follow might be bothersome.
New York neighborhoods recently faced such a dilemma when Sex and the City tours started making life for Greenwich Village more particularly 66 Perry St. miserable. The show’s immense popularity made 66 Perry St. a must-see destination for the show’s avid fans. Similarly my roomie, Anish wanted to go to Water’s Edge café as shown in Kal Ho Na Ho during our recent trip to NYC. We managed to convince him otherwise by telling him that it is useless unless you have Preity Zinta to accompany you. The tour operators however are winning over the residents of the troubled neighborhoods by offering them cash contributions to help beautify the area (can also be termed as ‘impact fees’ in development lingo). It is a perfect win-win situation for both parties. For permission to run little more organized tours so as not to encumber the residents, the residents get to beautify their streets.
by Patrix | on Tuesday, September 20th, 2005 at 12:00 pm | 
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September 20th, 2005 at 4:00 pm reply
you know what, i am not entirely sure what water’s edge cafe is, but it in december, I had a whole tour of KLNH NYC.. and it was fun…believe it or not… we went to Fulton Ferry State Park and then crossed over to Manhattan from the Brklyn bridge..(I believe that place was made famous to us ignorant desis by KLNH) it is seriously beautiful.. the neighbourhood is suprisingly upscale, and the walk across the bridge is also amazing.. we spotted a celebrity Sarita Choudhury of Mississippi Masala walking across..(wow! faint with delight) and then to the wall street bull:) of course, that was my Nth time in NY and we were really looking for things to see.. i also saw the Broadway show ‘The Producers’ on the same trip.. so all in all, was fun…\
now i wonder..maybe this shd have been a post on my blog.. eh well..
September 20th, 2005 at 4:08 pm reply
i am in Ubuffalo btw.
September 20th, 2005 at 4:10 pm reply
It’s so true. For a country so crazy about movies, we do not have a single movie-based park, do we? Where, yes apart from showcasing famous locations (Gabbar’s lair, Akbar’s Sheeshmahal, Mogambo’s island, etc), one could also have other attractions, viz. song-dance routines as you mention, drives in famous vehicles (Mr.India’s jalopy? The BMW from Dil Chahta Hai?).
Why, we could even have a Chamber of Horrors sponsored by the Ramsays!! :)
September 20th, 2005 at 4:50 pm reply
Wasn’t Ramoji City in Hyderabad supposed to be India’s answer to Universal Studios??
Am not much of a movie buff, so the opposite happens many a times. Guests here in the city look at sites and say…this is from such and such movie and I am the one who say hunh !!
September 20th, 2005 at 8:13 pm reply
Quite true… this happened with me when I landed in Sydney also… one of my friends took me to Darling Harbour to show me the spot where the song “Jaane Kyon” in Dil Chahta Hai was shot :) The place was worth seeing anyway, and did not need a Hindi-movie endorsement, but thats how things work with us, dont they…
September 20th, 2005 at 11:37 pm reply
It could be fun. Years ago I did a story on the Bollywood map of bombay and me and photographer went looking around the city for famous homes, studios etc. We had such a great time!
September 20th, 2005 at 11:55 pm reply
Sqrl, I don’t believe that you actually had a KHNH tour of NY considering how skewed they depicted NYC geography. Water’s Edge Cafe was the one Saif proposed Preity and the area where Preity runs off the sob as if its her backyard whereas she lived in Queens.
Rhyncus, now I guess I have fired up your imagination. Can you think of more ideas to pass on to apna Bollywood’s creative directors?
Arzan, Ramoji Studios was a pseudo-set creation. I am not sure as I haven’t visited but people have been impressed. There was a similar setup near Panvel, Surve Farms…the bungalow where Kaun was shot, etc. I am talking more on specific landmarks not generic railway stations, chawl, etc.
Nirav, of course the places are inherently beautiful. Thatz why the director chose them but for Indians, it acquires an added importance if they can associate a movie with it.
Rash, that would such an awesome exhibition material. Do you have it online? Can you?
September 21st, 2005 at 7:30 am reply
well the tour was given by my fiance, who could care less about details… we didnt really go there because khnh was shot there, but because it happened to be a pretty place which was shown in khnh.. i dont really know what water’s edge cafe is though..:(
September 21st, 2005 at 7:33 am reply
For a ‘complete’ KHNH tour of ‘NYC’, you would also have to visit Toronto ! In the fashion of Hollywood movies, many of the city scenes (especially in the songs) were actually shot in Toronto. Much cheaper I guess.
September 21st, 2005 at 12:16 pm reply
Sqrl, more reason for him to show you the Edge Cafe if he is your fiance :)
Jatayu, Oh yeah! they mess up everyone’s orientation and pass off other places as the ones they wanna depict. Do they think we are stupid? Abuse of artistic license, I say.
September 22nd, 2005 at 12:10 am reply
nope don’t have it online. used to have the article tho. must look for it.