Keywords: Film industry, shooting locations, Indian cinema, cultural industry
Project coordinator: Dr. Metka Hercog, University of Basel | Department of Social Sciences | Rheinsprung 9-11

Project objectives

  • To map the scale and analyze the specific locations across Europe where Indian films are being shot
  • To explore the infrastructure that allows for film shooting in selected European locations
  • To investigate the construction of place through the use of European locations in Indian cinema
  • To analyze the socio-economic impact of the Indian film industry in Europe and in India

Approaches

FilmInd uses geographical information systems software (GIS) and the spatial information stored on the database to build a multi-layered Geoatlas, which will enable an interactive overview of various types of European locations. For researching the infrastructure of film production, we will conduct fieldwork in the cities where the film industries are located (Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata) and in selected regions of Europe. Finally, we aim to understand the ecology of film productions in foreign locations, the specificities involved in the choice of locales, the interconnections within the film industry and the spill overs to other sectors.

Our Analysis and Visualization

As a research partner at CeDA, we have been developing interactive visualization application to explore the socio­economic aspects of Indian film with European shooting locations.