Runaway Production in the Film Industry in India : Case Study of Films Shot in Japan

Abstract

The aim of this study is to ascertain existence of runaway production in film production centers other than Hollywood. We clarified the actual condition of runaway production in the film industry in India through a case study of two films shot in Japan. As with Hollywood, runaway production in the film industry is also observed in India. In Indian film production, shooting in foreign countries came to be lively because of the desire of audiences to experience new locations for the first time, so-called "virgin locations," overcrowding of the shooting schedules in studios, increases in budgets, and the expansion of foreign markets. Filming in foreign countries is determined and executed depending on the desire of the audience in India and in foreign countries, the production and sales strategy, and the active support of the host countries. When shooting in other countries, non-resident Indian (NRI) support producers in order to help them carry out the production smoothly. The shooting of Indian films in Japan has been carried out intermittently since the late 1960s. This started because of economic growth in Japan, the improvement of the international status of Japan, and the improvement of interest in Japan in India during the 1960s and 1970s. In the 2000s, in the wake of the success of a film by which an NRI in Japan attracted interest in shooting in Japan, a producer who had a Japanese wife and who was interested in Japan filmed in Japan repeatedly. In the 2010s, Japanese central and local governments began to attract interest in the shooting of Indian films in Japan systematically, for example, through a screen tourism project by the Japan Tourism Agency. Thus, the number of these shootings increased rapidly in 2013. The trigger was not the efforts by the Japanese central and local governments but the shooting support businesses run by NRIs in Japan by using their social network of film professionals in India. The NRIs are new comers who have been coming to Japan since the 1990s and who engage in IT business in Japan. They set up companies on an exchange program between Japan and India, and they began shooting support businesses in response to the expanding economic exchange between Japan and India and the activities to attract interest in shooting Indian films in Japan done by the Japanese central and local governments. Most of the Indian films shot in Japan were Hindi films produced in Mumbai until the 2000s. However, most of the Indian films shot in Japan in 2013 were Tamil films produced in Chennai. The difference is mainly due to the difference of the social network of the film professionals in India that each NRI has. The other reasons for this change are probably the strengthening of relations between Bollywood (Mumbai) and Hollywood (Los Angeles) and that of the economic relations between Japan and Tamil Nadu in recent years.