Ireland willing to lure Bollywood

Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern

The Bollywood bug has bitten Ireland. The Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, on a week-long trade mission to India, has just given his Arts Minister a new job: "minister for Bollywood."

On a visit to Bangalore city, the information technology hub of India, Ahern was asked by reporters about his government's bid to woo Bollywood filmmakers to Ireland for shooting.

The Prime Minister jokingly replied "I would ask my minister for Bollywood to answer that question and pointed to Minister for Arts, Sports and Tourism John O'Donoghue. "Bollywood is something on our agenda. We have a lot of interest in that," Ahern said.

O'Donoghue followed it up by promptly announcing that Ireland would scale up tax relief for Indian filmmakers wanting to shoot and produce movies in that country.

Bollywood producers and directors are regularly wooed by countries like Malaysia, Mauritius, Switzerland, Italy and Britain to shoot films in their exotic locations.

Donoghue said Ireland fits in perfectly with Bollywood's fascination for exotic locations, tremendous seascapes and landscapes. Ireland, he said, would ease procedures for Indian producers to visit his country and schedule their film shooting and would also encourage joint projects.

Ahern and O'Donoghue will visit Mumbai and hold talks with Indian film producers later this week.

With very few Indian filmmakers venturing to militancy-hit Jammu and Kashmir state, which had been highly popular as a shooting locale, for location-hunting, several Indian movies are set in foreign countries, especially for the song and dance sequences.