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Turkey is fast becoming the hottest spot for Bollywood to shoot, and to holiday.
Ask Dino Morea who has just returned from one of his coolest holidays in Turkey. "I had gone with some
friends expecting nothing. But I came back satiated. It was fun and relaxing. Yeah, I want to go back again as
soon as possible."
Dino's sentiments are shared with many Bollywood denizens. In June this year Ekta Kapoor shot two of her
serial simultaneously in Turkey.
Ekta explains, "Turkey is quite a hot spot for Indian tourists. And their government felt, what better way to
promote Turkish tourism in India than by asking us to shoot our serials there? While my two serials were shot
me and my friends just chilled out. It was great fun."
Earlier Mani Ratnam shot Mallika Sherawat's item song with Abhishek Bachchan in Istanbul for
Guru.
And now producer Suniel Shetty will be shooting his entire film, the lavishly mounted espionage epic Mission
Istanbul all over Turkey with the government's assistance.
Says Suniel, "Turkey is definitely the new attraction for Bollywood. My entire film will be shot there. Not only
that, I'll also be hosting my company's next film awards in Turkey at the end of this year. We're definitely
looking at a Turkish innings in Bollywood."
For further proof of how important Turkey is getting to be for Bollywood there are Kangana Ranaut and Bobby
Deol. They will confirm the growing importance of the country to the entertainment industry in
Mumbai.
Last week, Kangana and Bobby flew to Turkey to shoot two songs for the medium-budgeted film
Roshan.
The songs were earlier scheduled to be shot in Manali but were cancelled due to inclement weather.
Says Kangana, "We were meant to relocate in Mauritus. But Turkey was suggested to our director Samir
Karnik. And we decided, why not? Good that we chose this beautiful location now. I feel in a year's time
Turkey will become as popular for shooting our films as Switzerland."
Friday, August 10, 2007 14:34 IST