UNI

Kochi, Oct 2: Kerala, with its backwaters, sunny beaches and misty hill stations, is getting set to woo Hollywood and Bollywood filmmakers to shoot their movies in the picturesque locales of the state.

To this end, the State Tourism Department will release a special set of brochures and two CDs at a major film event in Mumbai on October 15, Kerala Tourism Director B Suman said.

Talking to UNI, Mr Suman said the department had done an extensive survey of the state and had shortlisted 20 to 25 locales, which would be good for shooting a film.

The comprehensive brochure includes details like the time of sunrise and sunset at the location, the best time to shoot, the angles and the light. The CDs include pictures of locations so that film makers can see the potential of the places, he said.

Stating that the full potential of Kerala had not been utilised for film and advertisement shootings, Suman said lack of technical equipments, such as OB vans, had been cited as a bottleneck by leading film makers earlier.

"But, now the state provides adequate infrastructure including OB vans and good places for the crew to stay," he said.

The Bombay film industry, in fact, was beginning to discover Kerala. While ace director Mani Ratanam shot a dance sequence with Aishwarya Rai for his film 'Guru' near here, "oomph girl" Mallika Sherawat literally made waves at Kovalam beach recently.

Santosh Sivan, who is directing a Hollywood film titled 'Road to the Sky', shot extensively in the tea growing hill station of Munnar.

According to reports, the producers of the film, Echo Lake Productions of Los Angeles, Adirondack Pictures of New York and Santosh Sivan Productions, were keen to shoot either in South Africa or Brazil.

However, once they saw Munnar on Sivan's insistence, they were impressed with its pristine beauty and agreed to shoot the film in Kerala.

Non-Resident Keralite designer Sanjana John, who runs a production house along with her actor-designer brother Anand in Hollywood, had told UNI during a visit last year that if the Kerala Government extended creative support, many Hollywood artistes could be brought to Kerala.

"In fact, many of the Hollywood giants are not aware of the beauty of this land,"  said Sanjana, who had come home after a gap of 14 years to find locations for their feature film `7th Descendant'.