Dreamland

Mon Maane Na

Starring: Dev and Koel Mullick

Directed by: Sujit Guha

Produced by: Nishpal Films

Status: Post-production

Destination: Singapore. The team shot two song sequences over five days, capturing the scenic beauty of Jurong Bird Park, Orchard Road and Clarke Quay.

Budget: Rs 1.5 crore. The two song sequences in Singapore ate up Rs 20 lakh.

Why Singapore? “We had shot abroad for the Jeet-Koel-starrers Hero and Ghatak. Three songs of Hero were shot in Singapore. For Ghatak, we had gone to Thailand.... The idea is to add to the gloss. Most Bollywood films are shot either in America or Europe. It adds shine to a film. Besides, Mon Maane Na is a fresh, young film with a romantic story. So we thought it would be nice to have a few songs shot abroad. I am sure the audience will appreciate it. It’s also a marketing strategy,” says producer Nishpal Singh.

Bhalobasha Bhalobasha

Starring: Hiran and Shrabanti

Directed by: Ravi Kinnagi

Produced by: Ashok Dhanuka

Status: Released on Thursday

Destination: Salzburg in Austria. A 16-member team camped in Mozart’s birthplace to shoot two song sequences. Hiran and Shrabanti romanced by a river and on the foothills of the Alps. Salzburg is where The Sound of Music was shot.

Budget: Rs 3 crore. The Salzburg shoot cost Rs 23 lakh.

Why Austria? “In a dream song, the locations need to be dream-like. This is perhaps the first Bengali film to be shot in Austria. People thought I was mad because making a Bengali film with a Rs 3 crore budget is scary as half of our films don’t recover costs. But this film is very close to my heart. It’s about a father-son relationship and I could relate to the story. So I wanted to make it big and I am sure the film will generate great response,” says Dhanuka.

Shukno Lanka

Starring: Mithun Chakraborty, Sabyasachi Chakraborty, Roopa Ganguly

Directed by: Gaurav Pande

Produced by: Mumbai Mantra, the film production wing of Mahindra & Mahindra.

Status: Pre-production

Destination: Berlin. Again, a first for Tollywood. The cast and a few crew members will fly to Berlin in November to catch the Berlin International Film Festival.

Budget: Close to Rs 2.5 crore. The Berlin shoot will take up 20 per cent of the total budget.

Why Berlin? “Shukno Lanka is about a director and his life. So, the Berlin Film Festival plays a very important part in the script. We are not going there to add glamour to the film,” says Joy Ganguly of Moxie Entertainments, which is handling the outdoor shoot for Mumbai Mantra.

Lakshyabhed

Starring: Swastika Mukherjee, Rachana Banerjee, Tapas Pal, Sabyasachi Chakraborty

Directed by: Raj Mukherjee

Produced by: Pankaj Agrawal

Status: Post-production

Destination: Pattaya in Thailand. An 18-member team camped in Pattaya to shoot the sun and sand.

Budget: Rs 65 lakh. The three-day Pattaya shoot cost about Rs 5 lakh.

Why Pattaya? “We wanted to shoot some scenes on a beach. We could have gone to Goa but it would have cost us almost the same. Besides, the audience love watching foreign locations,” says director Raj Mukherjee.