Turkey is Bollywood's new hot spot

Turkey is fast becoming a hot spot for Bollywood to shoot. Dino Morea, who has just returned from the country after a holiday, said: "I had gone with some friends expecting nothing. But I came back satiated. It was fun and relaxing. Yes, I want to go back again as soon as possible."

Many Bollywood denizens share Dino's sentiments. In June this year, Ekta Kapoor simultaneously shot two serials in Turkey.

Ekta explains: "Turkey is quite a hot spot for Indian tourists and its government felt, what better way to promote Turkish tourism in India than asking us to shoot our serials there? While my two serials were shot, my friends and me just chilled out. It was great fun."

Earlier, Mani Ratnam shot portions of his hit 2007 film "Guru" along with Mallika Sherawat's item number with Abhishek Bachchan in Istanbul.

And now producer Suniel Shetty will be shooting his entire film, the lavishly mounted espionage epic "Mission Istanbul", in Turkey with the government's assistance.

Suniel said: "Turkey is definitely the new attraction for Bollywood. My entire film will be shot there. Not only that, I'll also be hosting my company's next film awards in Turkey at the end of this year. We're definitely looking at a Turkish innings in Bollywood."

Bollywood stars Kangana Ranaut and Bobby Deol have also fallen in love with the country after the duo flew there to shoot two songs for the medium-budget film "Roshan".

The songs were earlier scheduled to be shot in Manali but were cancelled due to inclement weather.

Kangana said: "We were meant to relocate to Mauritius. But Turkey was suggested to our director Samir Karnik and we thought why not? Good that we chose this beautiful location. I feel in a year's time Turkey will become as popular for shooting our films as Switzerland."

Indo-Asian News Service