Sri Lanka Tourism kicks off film tourism promotions with Indian cinema

The Indian Cinema is considered to be one of the busiest entertainment industries in the world by making over 2000 films per annum. While Mumbai based ‘’Bollywood ’’ leads the table (15 % from all Indian film productions), collectively Southern Indian Cinema contribute a higher proportion of film productions (Telugu 14%, Tamil 12%, Kannada 12%, Malayalam 11 % ). In 2015, Indian Cinema had the box office gross of USD 2.1 Billion, which is the third largest in the world. Overall revenue in 2019 was USD 2.7 Billion. The combined revenue of Southern Indian Cinema Industry (Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam film industries) represent over 50-60 % of the total revenue of Indian cinema.

In recent years, the industry trend of shooting Indian films abroad has taken attention of many international destinations. As it is contributing a lot to their local economies, many international destinations are competing to attract Indian films to film in their locations by offering various incentives and destination promotional packages.

Such films shot abroad: Kabali (Tamil), Singaporenalli Raja Kulla (Kannada), Orange (Telugu), Diamond Necklace (Malayalam), Jab Tak Hai Jaan (Hindi), Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (Hindi) had a great attention from the local Indian fans while making commercial success. Growing number of Indian film directors are in search of fresh international destinations to shoot their upcoming films.

In fact, famous Indian film directress Zoya Akthar visited Sri Lanka in the month of October 2021 in search of fresh locations for her upcoming movie. Directress of Gully Boy ( Main Cast: Ranveer Singh & Alia Bhatt) , Dil Dhadakne Do (Main Cast : Anil Kapoor, Shefali Shah, Priyanka Chopra, Ranveer Singh and Anushka Sharma) and many other blockbuster films , arrival of Zoya Akthar shows the film tourism potential lies in with destination Sri Lanka.