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Hungary
Sanjay Leela Bhansali passed off Budapest for Italy in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. Little did he realise that he'd get caught out.
The Indian interest in exploring newer foreign locations for shooting abroad has been growing. And no longer are we confined to the Swiss peaks either. In fact, Europe, per se is being scouted by Bollywood filmmakers for their song sequences or even setting part of the film abroad.
Budapest is one such destination which was shown widely by Sanjay Leela Bhansali in his Aishwarya Rai-Salman Khan starrer. It is the place the heroine's husband takes her to help her find her first love, Salman Khan. The tragic part was that Bhansali tried to pass of the beautiful city as being a part of Italy rather than acknowledge the truth. The excuse: Few would know the name Hungary, so lets' name it Italy for the purpose of the story.
A fact that few Hungarians are willing to by even now after three years of the films' release. Says Dr. Alice Radnoti, Director Hungarian Cultural Centre in New Delhi: "It was a pity that he did pass off Budapest for one of the cities in Italy. But thats incorrect. He even thanked the Hungarian government in the credits for the support it extended."
"He shot the film in the most popular parts of Budapest, the old buildings and near the synagogues. In fact, even the Amitabh Bachchan-Nandita Das starrer Aks was partly shot in Hungary in the old Royal Castle in Budapest," she reveals.
One of the best locations that filmmakers can go to for those scenic shots in Hungary is Lake Balaton, the biggest natural water lake in Europe, and its surrounding village area. That is not only very charming with slanted roof houses, but it also gets the maximum tourists.
One could also look at the mountain areas in Hungary, but it really depends on the film of course.
The Great Plains are "our biggest attraction," adds Dr. Radnoti.
About Hungary
Tradition holds that Hungary was founded by Árpád, who led the Magyars into the Pannonian plains in the 9th century. The kingdom of Hungary was established in 1000 by Saint-King Stephen the Great. Initially the history of Hungary was made in the triangle with Poland and Bohemia, with the many liaisons with Popes and Emperors of the Holy Roman Empire.
Gradually Hungary turned into a big, independent kingdom, that formed a tolerant Central European culture, as a part of European civilisation. The Hungarian culture influenced others, i.e. Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
The golden age ended with the Ottoman conquest at the beginning of the 16th century, when the rest of Hungary came under Austrian control in the 16th century, with Austria conquering all of Hungary by the end of the 17th century.
Under the Austrian Habsburg dynasty, Hungary would eventually, in 1867, become an autonomous part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until the Empire's collapse following World War I. Hungary separated from Austria on October 31, 1918.
In March 1919 the communists joined the government, and in April, Béla Kun proclaimed the Hungarian Soviet Republic. A period of red terror began; the Romanian army invaded, the communist forces were defeated and the Soviet Republic toppled on August 6 1919. In January 1920, elections were held for a unicameral assembly. Admiral Miklós Horthy was elected Regent. In June, the Treaty of Trianon was signed, fixing Hungary's borders. Compared with the prewar Kingdom, the size and population of Hungary were reduced by about two-thirds.
Over a decade later, Horthy made a limited alliance with Nazi Germany in the 1930s, in the hope of revising the territorial losses that had followed World War I. Hungary was rewarded by Germany with territories belonging to Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Romania, and took an active part in World War II. However, in October 1944, Hitler had to replace Horthy with a Hungarian Nazi collaborator to avert Hungary's defection.
Following the fall of Hitler, Hungary once again was run by communists. In 1956, a revolt and announced withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact were met with a military intervention by the Soviet Union and led to the deposition and execution of prime minister Imre Nagy.
In the late 1980s, Hungary led the movement to dissolve the Warsaw Pact and shifted toward multiparty democracy and a market-oriented economy. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Hungary developed closer ties with Western Europe, joined NATO in 1999 and joined the European Union on May 1, 2004.
