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K.V. Kurmanath

Hyderabad , Nov. 10

AUSTRIA, the tiny European country touted as the world's most intense holiday destination, has found that its date with the Indian film industry proved to be a windfall for its tourism industry. And the new-found relationship has brought a high-level delegation from the Alpine land to Hyderabad to showcase the country's exquisite locales to Tollywood producers.

Allu Aravind, Ashwinidutt, the S.V. Krishna Reddy-Achchi Reddy duo, Tammareddy Bharadwaja and Sravanti Ravikishore were some of the film personalities who attended the presentation made by Mr Johannes Koeck of Cine Tirol here.

Cine Tirol was set up by the Province of Tirol and Tirol Tourist Board to promote the State as an attractive site for international film and television productions. It also offers professional location services to help producers find the right locations, besides arranging for shooting permits, visa support, hospitality and transportation. It has also developed an electronic archive of 500 clips for identifying locations easily.

"The Austria Advantage is that the wilderness is just a short drive away," Mr Koeck told Business Line. "We have realised late the potential of our locales as attractive destinations for international film shoots. Five years later, we saw revenues to the tune of 21 million euros from international film productions alone," he said.

"Once a decision had been made to market the locales, we had started asking our embassies to spread the word. And the first response we got was from India," he said. Since then, there's been no looking back. Austria soon became a favourite location for Indian film producers.

Films made by Ajay Devgan (Raju Chacha), Nitin Manmohan (Chal Mere Bhai), Krishnavamsi (Khadgam) and Sravanti Ravikishore (Ela Cheppanu) did the talking for Austria."I had shot nearly one-third of Ela Cheppanu there. Of the 65 days of shooting, we were there for 19 days," Mr Ravikishore said. "The hassle-free procedure is an additional advantage," he said.

The rendezvous with India is a revelation for Austria on another front. "The infrastructure here for film production is amazing. I'll tell our producers back home to go and see Hyderabad," he said.

Mr Koeck said the projection of Austria in Indian films had helped in increase of tourist inflows into his country.

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