Getting Bollywood stars to endorse India’s tourism attractions could pay handsome dividends

The recent trend of governments getting movie stars to endorse or tom-tom tourism attractions was a logical progression from Bollywood films bringing exotic locales, foreign and Indian, to the notice of avid viewers.

A lot of Indians’ first glimpse of the world had been through the efforts of countless film crews fanning out to remote corners of the world in search of the right unique setting for romantic romps. From Kashmir and Himachal to Spain and New Zealand, the canvas of the Indian cinematographer has only widened down the decades.

It was, therefore, inevitable that an Amitabh Bachchan or an Aamir Khan would be coopted into chronicling India’s wonders to tempt tourists of all kinds. Two more logical progressions remain.

Now that practically every foreign country worth its picturesque towns has offered itself as a venue for the next blockbuster, it may be worth their while to get a superstar to extol their virtues to the TV-watching population rather than merely the cinema-going one.

If one coming-of-age film shot in Spain can spark a tourist rush from here to that country (besides a tomato festival in India à la Bunol), imagine what a Big B baritone lionising the African savannah life as evocatively as the Gujarati forests would do for Indian outbound tourism to that continent.

It is also about time that our state governments wake up to the fact that more Indians travel internally than abroad and that they far outnumber inbound foreign tourists.

Therefore, tempting Bollywood crews to focus on India’s little unknown but beautiful locales instead of only spending money and time abroad, could pay handsome dividends all round.

It could prove cheaper than hiring a movie star to push a TV campaign and it would also enlighten India about how incredible it truly is.