Iceland woos Bollywood

Panaji, Nov 23 (UNI) With several big budgeted Hollywood blockbusters shot in Iceland, the North European country is now turning towards India to woo filmmakers here to explore it as an ideal shooting destination.

This is on the agenda of the seven-day visit of Iceland Prime Minister Geir H Haarde accompanied by a high level delegation of trade, industry and film industry representatives to India in January 2007.

On his arrival in New Delhi on January four, Mr Haarde will have talks with President A P J Abdul Kalam and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. He is scheduled to visit Hyderabad, Bangalore and Mumbai from January eight to ten.

The highpoint of his visit is in Mumbai where the Iceland delegation will meet Bollywood filmmakers on January ten, said Audunn Atlason, Deputy Chief of Mission, embassy of Iceland here today.

He was making a special presentation on Iceland as an ideal shooting destination for filmmakers in India at the 'India-the Big Picture' conference organised by the CII in association with the Film and Television Producers Guild here as part of the 37th International Film Festival of India (IFFI).

Mr Atlason said despite having different shape and size, India and Iceland have lot of similarities in terms of the progress they have achieved as sovereign nations, values of tolerance, peace and democracy and practical nature. ''We do not see the problems we face, but look for solutions on how to overcome the problems,'' he said.

According to him, India achieved independence in 1947 while his country became independent in 1944. ''We were a poor European country when we became free. So was India. But, both countries have grown tremendously in terms of economic achievements. We are not a member of the European Union (EU) and are strategically situated between the United States and Europe. It is easy to do business with Iceland,''he said.

''We are looking forward for cooperation with India in terms of trade and films,''he added.

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