By Mayabhushan Nagvenkar
Panaji, Dec 13 (IANS): With the European economic crisis crippling its film industry, Portugal wants Bollywood to do a "Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara"-like film on its soil to bring it some cheer.
Large chunks of ZNMD, a popular multi-starrer directed by Zoya Akhtar, were shot in Spain's exotic locales, which in turn, sparked off tourism interest among Indian travellers, something which Portugal now wants to replicate and cash in on.
Speaking to IANS on the sidelines of an event to announce a Lusophone film festival scheduled to be held in Goa over this weekend, Portugal's Consul General for Goa Rui Carvalho Baceira said that a film on the lines of ZNMD shot in Portugal would be a great step as far as cultural exchanges between the two countries go and would also help bolster the economies of both India and Portugal.
"Because of the film, a lot of Indians came to know about Spain, its culture and that it exists. This facilitates an exchange. People want to come and visit Spain and there is increased trade," Baceira said.
ZNMD, which was both commercially and critically acclaimed, went to the extent of spawning tomatina festivals across India after the famous Spanish tomato slinging cultural extravaganza, which inspired a song as well as accounted for a significant portion of the Hrithik Roshan-Farhan Akhtar-Abhay Deol co-starrer.
The film also inspired a musical trend, making Latino music the flavour of the season in Bollywood around its release in 2011.
"If a similar thing could happen for Portugal, people from India will want to come and visit (Portugal). Goods will be exchanged," he added.
Goa was a Portuguese colony for over 450 years and was liberated only in 1961, 14 years after India gained independence from British rule.
Back home, Baceira admitted that due to a weakened economy, the Portuguese film industry had suffered.
Investors in Portugal were shying away from parking their money in making films, he said. With very few films being made in Portugal, the audiences there, he said, had to make do with movies which were made and produced in Brazil, as its language is very close to Portuguese.
The South American economic giant was formerly a Portuguese colony and has a robust film industry.
The Lusophone film festival is a part of the Semana da Cultura Indo-Portuguese initiative, which aims at fostering a dialogue between the two cultures. It will feature films from the Portuguese-speaking world, which includes countries like Brazil, Portugal, Mozambique, Angola, Cape Verde and several other smaller Luso-inspired countries.