Ek Tha Tiger, shot on location in Dublin during last year’s presidential election, looks like becoming the biggest Bollywood hit of all time after breaking a string of box office records in India over the weekend.
Which can only mean one thing.
A sequel!
If history is anything to go by, the Irish can expect a flood of Indian tourists in the coming months and years – the production company, Yash Raj Films, has a reputation for drawing Indians to foreign destinations.
One of the hallmarks of a Yash Raj film has long been an on-location song-and-dance number in Switzerland, which began taking over for Kashmir’s Himalayas once the region became unstable in the 1960s.
Since then, a trip to Switzerland has become a status symbol among upper-middle-class Indians, and is often the first destination of those wishing to travel abroad for the first time (as opposed to visiting family) – so much so that travel agencies offer Bollywood tours that take visitors to the sites of famous scenes.
…[And] the Irish claim the already have another Bollywood-related announcement to make, though [Huzan Fraser, India representative for Tourism Ireland] couldn’t say what just yet. A country hard-up for cash could do worse than a song-and-dance routine to attract foreign money.
The Irish Look For The Luck Of The Indians…in Bollywood (Neil Munishi, FT.com)
