ZURICH, SWITZERLAND / EDITOR’S NOTEPAD – Bollywood’s long love affair with Switzerland, and in particular the Swiss mountains, is coming to an end, the Wall Street Journal reports on its front page today. Changing tastes of movie-goers in India is the main reason, according to the US newspaper, but Switzerland’s high costs are also up against competition:
“For reasons both artistic and financial, there has been a plot twist in a relationship as enduring as those at the heart of Bollywood romances. Switzerland has been Indian cinema’s A-list destination for movie interludes since the 1980s, when over-the-top duets set in the Bernese Alps were featured in genre hits like “Chandni.” Since then, hundreds of Indian film crews have slipped on parkas and made the 5,000-mile trek from packed Mumbai to Switzerland’s snow pack.
Now, other locales are driving a wedge between Switzerland and Indian production crews as they try to capitalize on Bollywood demand for saccharine serenades. Some destinations, like the UK, offer incentives such as cash rebates. Others, like the Himalayas of Kashmir, are simply closer.”
One upcoming film has the hero declaring his love from European heights, once again, but this time it’s from a London rooftop instead of an Alpine peak. London, it seems, is “more real” than the Alps.