Bollywood Executives want to shoot in the Philippines

CLARK FREEPORT, Philippines - Fun+ Asia Entertainment Studios Philippines Inc. toured eight Bollywood filmmakers and producers in Clark on Sunday to promote the economic zone and its twin center, the Subic Bay Freeport, as movie locations or production headquarters.

Philippine Ambassador to India Marita Jimenez, who accompanied the group, said this was the first batch of foreign film industry leaders to come and check out the Philippines.

"There's a second Bollywood group that's coming in January. By April, we will have the Hollywood group," Jimenez told the Inquirer.

Those who attended a briefing were representatives of the Bollywood firms Maverick Productions, Bohra Brothers Entertainment Co., Popcorn Motion Pictures and Compressor Film, as well as India's tourism and housing security officials.

Jimenez said the renewed interest in the Philippines as a "filmmaker's haven" was a result of President Macapagal-Arroyo' s recent visit to India.

"The California State is the 19th top economy in the world and the entertainment industry contributes largely to that. President Arroyo wants Filipinos to be part of that industry," she said.

Ashok Narendral Bohra of Bohra Brothers said the company was "exploring, but I definitely want to shoot in your country."

"There's a wide breadth of location. These add up to production value," Compressor Film's Tomas Puig said.

Movie setting

In her presentation, Catherine May Jimenez, Fun+Asia vice president and chief operations officer, said that in past years, several Hollywood outfits had used the Philippines for movie settings.

But "everything entertainment is now in the Philippines" through Fun+Asia, she said.

This joint venture of Viva International Pictures, Philippine Films and Brains International Corp. is developing Clark and Subic to be "Asia's first entertainment production enclave with strategic freeport incentives" to make it the "Hollywood of Asia."

The country's major come-ons are its most competitive production cost, vast and versatile shooting locations, abundant local talents and entertainment craftsmen, hospitable English-speaking population, multi-industry support facilities and nearness to other places in the Asia-Pacific region.

Doing business in Clark and Subic also comes with zero-taxes or tax holidays, including advanced basic utilities, international amenities and easy access through international airports and seaports that offer regular or charter flight services.

Aside from the Expo Pilipino, the foreign filmmakers visited nearby lahar landscapes that Mount Pinatubo left on the heels of its 1991 eruptions.