Pandemic after-effects: Bollywood zooms in on the Northeast

From Anek to Bhediya, Bollywood filmmakers are heading to the northeast region to stir up some action and drama

As Bollywood walks on a long road to recovery after the pandemic-induced lockdown, the northeast region of the country is emerging as a hot spot for shooting, with filmmakers panning their cameras to capture the various sides, and moods, of the place.

Actor Ayushmann Khurrana is shooting his upcoming film Anek in Assam, while Varun Dhawan and Kriti Sanon will film their horror comedy, Bhediya, in Arunachal Pradesh

If director Anubhav Sinha is navigating a story of a spy with actor Ayushmann Khurrana in Assam, then Amar Kaushik is all set to trace supernatural tale of Bhediya in the wilderness of Arunachal Pradesh with actors Varun Dhawan and Kriti Sanon. Director Meghna Gulzar is also expected to shoot her next project in Meghalaya, Assam and Nagaland.

“While there can never be a positive side to a global pandemic, but, due to the setback the industry suffered, the Bollywood film industry has cemented the fact that India is a shining country when it comes to beautiful locations to shoot,” says producer Bhushan Kumar, who is backing Sinha’s Anek.

It was mostly due to the after-effects of COVID-19 pandemic, and travel restrictions, that filmmakers started to look within the country for shoots, as Kumar shares, “It’s over the past year that tapping different tourism boards from different states worked in our favour”.

The Bollywood affair will continue with superstar Salman Khan also expected to head to Arunachal Pradesh soon for a shoot, something which was disclosed earlier this month by minister Kiren Rijiju in a tweet reading, “Good to see Bollywood stars in my beautiful State of Arunachal Pradesh…Salman Khan has also planned to shoot in Arunachal Pradesh”.

“It is a beautiful unexplored land. For us, stories in the last five years have become about India for India by India. The whole land is untouched and innocent. And we plan to shoot in the region responsibly, without affecting nature at all, and hopefully give you a cinematic experience that will make you come here for a holiday,” says producer Dinesh Vijan, who is in Arunachal Pradesh for his project, Bhediya.

Opening up about his reasons to shoot Bhediya in Arunachal Pradesh, Kaushik says, “We required a background of deep forests, natural habitat and ethnic lifestyle, which Arunachal Pradesh offers in abundance. The beauty of the state is quite unexplored by films and with the film we also hope to create awareness about the culture, warm people and treasure of the place.”

But, going forward will be a bumpy track as the place comes with its own set of challenges, such as lack of properly developed roads and many other logistic reasons.

“That is the one of the main factors why some of the projects had to be shifted to other locations,” says James Handique, a line producer from northeast, who has previously worked on Roadies, Splitsvilla and Rock On 2.

So what is contributing to the accelerating momentum? There are many factors which can be credited for the rise. “The first thing is that the region was less affected by the virus crisis, and the second thing is that the region remains to be unexplored,” says Handique, who is currently working with Anek team.

“Many production houses from the South as well as Bollywood have started to come in now,” he tells us, sharing that the process of taking permissions has also been simplified.

“It takes seven days, or maximum 15-20 days to get permission, if you have all documents in place,” says Handique.

The showbiz glare will also lend in changing the image of the place, and help in dispelling “wrong information about the place”.

“There is a rumour that the northeast is a very dangerous place, with problems of insurgency. Yes, there are problems with the insurgency but they never have targeted tourists or film crews. At the moment, the Anek team is shooting in a remote part of Assam, and they are astonished at how supportive the people are. So, the image will change”, says Handique, who will next work on Gulzar’s project.

He also reveals that two Telugu films are also scheduled to shoot in the region soon.