Envoy meets Tollywood's who's who, pitches Norway for film shoots

Norwegian Ambassador to India Nils Ragnar Kamsvag hosted a dinner meeting with the who's who of Tollywood in Hyderabad on Sunday.

The purpose of the dinner was to welcome key producers, directors, cinematographers and actors to Norway and consider it as a potential location for their films.T

he job, however, turned out to be not so difficult, with some positive feedback from some of the guests who have recently been to Norway.

Sravanthi Ravi Kishore, producer and owner of the Sravanthi banner, that recently completed 30 years, noted that "as a producer, it is the most satisfying to be at a location that is new, beautiful, financially viable and supportive all at the same time. We had a great time in Norway, and we are going to go back very soon again".

"When we landed in Norway, the only words we could think of were wow, amazing, beautiful.and then we got tired of repeating and just continued to admire the beauty this country offers", said Rasool Ellore, famous cinematographer, who was the man behind the camera in the songs shot in Norway for the 2015 release, Shivam produced under the Sravanthi Banner.

Ambassador Kamsvag, who also made a presentation on Norway's new policy of giving subsidies to film and TV productions, was optimistic about the response.

"We are here to assist and help interested productions in choosing Norway as their film destination. We have always had beautiful, untouched locations to offer, but now it also comes with a lucrative government policy, that we hope, will create more confidence among interested producers to choose Norway", said Mr Kamsvag.

The process and experience thus far has been very smooth according to Richard Wallace (Richie), International locations coordinator for Shivam (Telugu) and Akira (Kannada) that shot songs in Norway in 2015.

"The Norwegian Embassy immediately acted upon our request for shooting at short notice. We were connected to the Norwegian Film Commission, and had the cameras rolling in Norway in no time", he said, adding that "such support shows the serious commitment a country is making to its potential customers, which we are very pleased with". "I have received over 15 enquiries for Norway ever since. This is a clear upwards trend," he added.

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