New show explores Bollywood’s love affair with Scotland

Radio 4’s Bonny Bollywood: 25 Years of Indian Film Making in Scotland explores why the world’s largest film industry has turned to Scotland as its number one filming location outside Mumbai’s Film City.

The Indian film industry has a long tradition of location shooting and once upon a time, the “classic” location was Kashmir, with its beautiful mountain and lake scenery.

The political situation in the region has made filming there difficult and too dangerous for stars to visit.

So in 1998, director Karan Johar assembled an A-list cast and crew to shoot Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, a first for Bollywood, focusing on Scotland with lush locations of valleys, castles and lakes to complement the lavish romantic musical and action-based fare of the film genre.

The film was India’s highest-grossing film of 1998 and cemented Bollywood’s love affair with Scotland.

Indian audiences loved the Scottish locations filmed at Tantallon Castle in North Berwick, Black Rock Cottage in Glencoe, Eilean Donan Castle in Kyle of Lochalsh and Loch Lomond, and have since been regularly visiting the places where India’s iconic film stars sang and danced on screen so many times.

Ravi spoke to Bollywood experts including presenter Raj Dhanda and Glasgow-born Bollywood actor Ferina Wajier to find out more about Scotland’s contribution as a major filming backdrop along with its cultural history for Indian filmmakers.

With over 100 Indian films shot in various Indian languages ​​including Hindi, Punjabi and Tamil in Scotland, Ravi also spoke to UK-based Bollywood line producers Parag Sanke, Diksha Bhatia (Big Elephant Productions) and Adil Khan (Scotwood Productions) who spoke about the growing location services offering.

Adil said: “Scotland’s lush scenery, wintry climate, natural sunlight and clear skies have made it currently one of the most popular filming locations for Bollywood directors and production companies. Unlike Mumbai, it doesn’t suffer from smog and many films call for snow and ice – Scotland can provide both.”

After missing out on the lead role in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (albeit as an extra!) to replace his brother, Ravi set out to finally realise his Bollywood dream by aiming to land a supporting role in a Bollywood film.

Ravi visited the sets of Bhai Bhai (Brother Brother), currently being shot in Scotland, and spoke to the two leading Bollywood stars Manish Paul and Kunaal Roy Kapur.

‘Bony Bollywood: 25 Years of Indian Film Making in Scotland’ will be broadcast on Radio 4 at 7.15pm on Sunday 2 June and will also be available on iPlayer.