Bulgaria is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south and the Black Sea to the east. It was just a matter of time before the country could be discovered by Indian filmmakers, because Indian films have already been shot in Bulgaria’s neighboring countries. Now its Bulgaria’s turn to feature in Bollywood films.
Bollywood Films Shot in Bulgaria
Shahrukh Khan and Kajol are together in a Bollywood hindi film after a long time. Their movie ‘Dilwale’, directed by Rohit Shetty, has several scenes that were shot in Bulgaria.
Dilwale film shot in various places in Sofia, Bulgaria
When Rohit Shetty was looking for a suitable location to film ‘Dilwale’, location guru Natarajan Ramji suggested Rohit that he shoot the film in Bulgaria.
“I explained how we could shoot a lot of Dilwale’s action scenes in Bulgaria. In India, all we see are Tata Sumos and Scorpios being blown up for the sake of action. But in Bulgaria, I could offer Porsches, Jaguars and Bentleys at the same price it would cost us to hire auto-rickshaws here,” said Ramji
And it flows with such ease…. pic.twitter.com/3eF7qmgw0o
— Shah Rukh Khan (@iamsrk) June 16, 2015
Another movie that will be shot in Bulgaria is Ajay Devgan upcoming film named Shivaay; the movies pre-prep has already been done in Bulgaria. Ajay will also be promoting Bulgaria tourism.
Earlier, Ajay was planning to film the movie in Calgary in Canada, but he later decided to move the location. The Calgary locations, which Ajay had initially liked, could only be accessed by chopper so it was just not practical for them to film at that location. Luckily for Ajay Devgn, Bulgaria offered similar locations and he immediately decided to shift the filming location of ‘Shivaay’ to Bulgaria.
Coincidentally, both SRK/Kajol and Ajay Devgan were in Bulgaria at the same time, and they did catch-up for a while, before resuming with their respective film-shoots.
More Indian Films Shot in Bulgaria
Although India started hearing more about Bulgaria recently, after Rohit Shetty and team together, with Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol, Varun Dhawan and Krity Sanon headed for Bulgaria to shoot scenes of their upcoming “Dilwale” movie.
But this is not the first time when Indian movie productions have chosen Bulgaria as a foreign destination for some of their scenes. Exactly a year ago the “Bahubali” team was in Bulgaria shooting on the snow covered peaks in Bansko. While the Tamil thriller “Masss” was the first to discover Bulgaria and have some of its scenes feature the capital of Bulgaria, Sofia.
Bulgaria Tourism
Located in the southeast part of the Balkans, Bulgaria has a diverse topography, and most of its population is urbanized.
Travel operators in Bulgaria are happy that Indian filmmakers have discovered Bulgaria, and some of the most beautiful spots and landmarks have been featured in “Dilwale”.
Christina Vlahova, CEO Intellecta Srl who owns Bulgaria Travel Notes, says her team were fortunate to get a glimpse of Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol filming in downtown Sophia, and hopes that more Indian tourists will decide to visit Bulgaria after watching Dilwale and follow on the footsteps of their favorite actors. Bulgaria Travel Notes is a Bulgarian travel site, providing information to Indian tourists and travel agencies on the spots and landmarks where Indian movies have been shot.
