Why Bollywood is lining up to shoot its films in the Northeast

Kangana Ranaut is shooting for her upcoming political thriller, Emergency in Chandubi, Assam. Hrithik Roshan was spotted shooting for his upcoming action thriller, Fighter, directed by Siddharth Anand, in Tezpur. 

Varun Dhawan’s recently-released Bhediya was shot extensively across locations in Arunachal Pradesh. Ayushmann Khurrana’s failed foray into Northeastern terrorism and its ramification across the seven states was shot across the Northeast. And the list goes and on. Why is there such a surge in interest among Bollywood filmmakers to shoot their stories in the Northeast when this section of the country has been long neglected and sidelined? What is making producers, directors, and actors run to the Northeast to shoot their films? Through the rest of this article, let us try to decipher this new and very interesting development.

The films I mentioned above are in no way the first few films to be shot in the Northeast. The list goes back to the 1960s. Jewel Thief, released in 1967 was one of India’s best spy thrillers, and it starred the nation’s heartthrob at that time, Dev Anand. It was shot extensively in Sikkim. Sikkim, back then, was not considered a part of the Northeast. However, it is very much a part of the Northeast now and for that reason, this film makes our list. Kurbaan, directed by Deepak Bahry was a family drama film starring Salman Khan and Ayesha Jhulka filmed in Shillong. A few scenes were shot at Eastern Air Command Campus, Upper Shillong. Rakesh Roshan’s 1997 Koyla, starring Shah Rukh Khan and Madhuri Dixit, was shot in Arunachal Pradesh. One of the film’s songs, “Tanhai Tanhai”, was filmed in the Shungetser Lake and Nuranang Falls in the Tawang district of the state. After the shoot, Shungetser Lake came to be referred to as the Madhuri Lake. More recently, films like John Abraham-starrer Saya, Farhan Akhtar starer Rock On 2, and Shahid Kapoor- Kangana Ranaut- Saif Ali Khan starer Rangoon were also shot in the Northeast.