Epic 2006 Bollywood movie Krrish filmed in S’pore led to Indian tourists boom

Direct marketing worked.

Belmont Lay | August 28, 2017, 05:36 PM

The Singapore Tourism Board has rebranded Singapore in 2017 as a travel destination that gives a more local experience to foreign visitors.

The new slogan is "Passion Made Possible".

Here is a video of the revamp:

Bollywood film promoting Singapore

Back in 2006, undoubtedly simpler times, Singapore took a more direct approach to showcasing the best of the republic to foreigners.

Singapore was, in fact, weaved into the plot of a 2006 Bollywood science fiction superhero film, Krrish.

This resulted in 60 percent of the movie being filmed here.

You can watch a short snippet with familiar Singapore scenes here:

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A partnership with the Singapore Tourism Board

Krrish was the first Indian film to be shot in Singapore under the Singapore Tourism Board's Film-in-Singapore subsidy scheme.

Shooting was accomplished on location over a span of two months, from September to November 2005.

Locations featured included the Singapore Zoo, the Gateway building, and the National Library.

Robinson Road in the Central Business District also featured heavily in the final cut, but heavy rains during filming caused production delays.

The Singapore police were deployed on location to block roads and protect the filming equipment, such as when the film's action scenes required two 250-foot high industrial cranes for stunts.

Boosting tourism to Singapore

The film benefited Singapore by showcasing the sights and sounds of the republic to boost Indian film-induced tourism.

STB partnered with Krrish from the initial stages of the project.

The board also provided production line support, local talent and on ground logistics for the project, weaving Singapore into the story.

The film's stars Hrithik Roshan and Priyanka Chopra also appeared in television ads talking about how they "fell in love with Singapore while shooting for Krrish".

The campaign was very successful in boosting tourists’ interest in Singapore.

Post-campaign research showed that over 90 percent of the respondents showed a positive disposition to visiting Singapore after watching Krrish, an STB spokesperson said then.

STB even launched a special Krrish package when the movie came out, which included tours to locations in the film like the Singapore Zoo, Sentosa Island, Lau Pa Sat Market where the film's start performed his dare-devil stunts.

The package was priced at US$185 for four days and three nights, all inclusive.

The STB spokesperson said then that the movie was set to achieve the target of a 10 percent increase in the number of Indian visitors to Singapore.

In 2005, a record 583,000 Indians visited Singapore.

In 2016, some 1.1 million visitors from India visited Singapore and contributed to the 8 percent increase in visitor arrivals from India.

The tourism sector performance report by the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) showed that Indian visitors to Singapore generated S$1.1 billion in tourism receipts for the first three quarters of 2016 -- a 37 percent increase over the same period in 2015.

New Krrish 4 movie out in 2018

Krrish was a sequel to a 2003 movie. There are currently three movies released in the series, with a fourth slated for 2018.

At that time, Krrish was made as an ambitious testament to prove that the Indian Bollywood movie industry could rival Hollywood.

Touted as India's first superhero film, the story combined elements of Hindu religion, Chinese martial arts and referenced the action sequences Hollywood films popularised to set itself up for a global audience.

Krrish was directed by Rakesh Roshan and starred his son Hrithik Roshan.

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