Bollywood Hits Cape Town

Cape Town Film Industry Set to Experience Influx of Bollywood Film Productions

Over the past years The Cape Film Commission has worked tirelessly to attract big Hollywood and Bollywood productions to Cape Town. Now with Cape Town likely to become home to the lucrative Bollywood film production market, the hard work seems to have paid off.

Bollywood’s attention has been drawn to the Mother City due to the fact that Cape Town is now truly recognized as a global film industry destination. Over the past year The Cape Town film industry has come of age and has become a key contributor to the economy of the Western Cape. The city has seen major Hollywood films being shot on its soil, and has hosted several Oscar Winners and A-list actors and actresses.

According to the Western Cape Minster of Finance, Economic Development and Tourism, Minister Allan Winde, "The time is now ripe for the Western Cape to take full advantage of the current global economic crisis by actively marketing your service offering to new markets like the Middle East and India.”

In addition Minister Winde stated that the successful hosting of the IPL earlier in 2009 beamed images of our country into the homes of millions of Indians and this has provided the Western Cape with a wonderful opportunity to access this huge Indian tourism and film markets.

Large productions have significant spin-offs in the Cape Town Tourism sector, as well as to the Cape Town economy as a whole. Overseas crews need accommodation, locals are often employed as crew and cast members, and the service industry typically provides catering, transport and security services.

Mr. Mitchell further added that the CFC is already leading discussion with the Department of Trade and Industry to look at a restructured film rebate system that would see a much more seamless distribution of these funds and a system that would make it much easier to enter into co-production treaties with a specific focus on markets such as India.

The CFC will also be engaging with the DTI to look at increasing the subsidy that local film production companies could access.

The Cape Film Commission will later in the year undertake a mission to India to cement this relationship with Bollywood, and directly present the film industry`s service offering to the huge Indian film market.

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