Finland is a beautiful country, located in the Nordic Region, where more than half of the land is preserved forest that has over 2,00,000 lakes.
Unfortunately, Indian filmmakers have not been able to bring that beauty on the big screen, because of lack of incentives offered by the Finnish government to international filmmakers. That in turn, also reflects on the tourist flow from India to Finland; the country gets much less tourists from India as compared to other countries.
However, the Finnish government acknowledges that Bollywood is a huge film industry and are working on offering some incentives so that more Bollywood filmmakers can come and shoot in Finland; it will also allow the Indian population to see the beauty of the various places in Finland.
Movies Shot in Finland
R.Balki’s ‘Shamitabh’ featuring the Big B in a new look, will be the first Bollywood movie to be shot in Finland (the movie also features Dhanush and Akshara). The movie has been shot in locations like the Artic Circle and Lapland (Lapland is the largest region of the Nordic country).
The crew had some adventurous time during their shoot in Finland. For a brief period, their shooting had to be stalled as the place where they were filming was hit by a snow storm. When the 33 member crew saw the storm, they decided not to wait for any vehicle or chopper to rescue them; instead they walked around 10 km (at 3AM), carrying all the equipment. Everything went off well eventually as the crew completed their 10-day shoot in Finland. The movie is slated for a 2015 release.
Finland Too Expensive to Shoot Films?
The Finnish film industry is matured, offers experienced professionals and world class production facilities. Besides, the country offers several scenic locations that can be captured on films.
Even though Bollywood filmmakers may be keen to capture the beauty of Finland on films, they’re unable to do so because its expensive to shoot in Finland. The country also offers less incentives to production houses.
In 2007, Finland joined the ‘Welcome Bollywood’ wagon wherein they allowed shoot in its country without any public fee for any location, but no Bollywood movie has been shot in Finland since then. Now ‘Shamitabh’ is all set to change that.
Bollywood Dancing is a Craze Here
The Finnish people may not be big fans of Bollywood films, and may not recognize the big stars, but they surely seem to have been bitten by the ‘Bollywood film dance’ bug.
And the craze for Bollywood dancing is only spreading like wild fire, with several dance studios offering Bollywood style dancing courses. The dance form seems to have more followers of girls than boys currently; they love the music and are fascinated by the intricate steps.
Such is the popularity of this form of dancing in Helsinki, that the government has introduced Bollywood dance classes in its schools.
Finland Tourism
FINLAND is shaped like a summer squash, with the Arctic Circle the stem, the capital of Helsinki the base, and the lake region the fleshiest part, where the country bellies out.
Finland is also known as the the ‘Land of the Midnight Sun’, the ‘land of a thousand lakes’ and even the ‘Land of Santa Claus’.
