The shoot was for one of the many Indian “Bollywood” productions filmed in Switzerland each year, and the shooting of the film in Gstaad was the result of a concerted effort by Switzerland’s film promotion agency to woo Indian producers to the country. Why? Because Swiss Bollywood movies, most often melodramatic tearful or cheerful song and dance numbers, have had a more than melodramatic effect on Switzerland’s tourism numbers since the first movie was shot here in 1964. For example, in 2005 over 250,000 of India’s rapidly growing middle classes visited Switzerland in a bid to experience the scenes where their favorite movies were shot, and indeed overnight stays by Indians in the first 5 months of this year were up 19% (while the total number of overnight stays in the country as a whole shrank by 1%). Read more...

Click the play button on the image above to see video from the Promenade film shoot.

In order to further entice Indian film producers, the Swiss film promotion agency is offering Bollywood filmmakers free scouting trips around the country, with extra incentives for films that feature Swiss flags and scenes of everyday Swiss life such as trains, alpine villages, and towns. Although Switzerland has had to compete with Austria and Ireland in recent years, at the end of 1990s more than 30 films a year were partially shot in Switzerland, with as many as 15 shoots a year taking place in Saanenland. So the next time you see a gaggle of artsy types fawning over an exotic-looking (normally shivering) woman while collectively swaying to the throb of a pulsating bhangra beat (click here to listen)…you’ll know Bollywood is in town.

Click here to read an October 4 International Herald Tribune article on the rise of Indian film-making in Switzerland.