Sunil Shetty had produced the Vivek Oberoi – Zayed Khan starrer, Mission Istaanbul and shot the film almost entirely in various parts of the beautiful country. The film flopped miserably at the box office, but what has left Shetty frustrated even months after his film’s debacle is the attitude of Turkey’s Ministry of Tourism.
A close pal of the actor-producer informed, “Sunil had co-produced Mission Istaanbul with Ekta Kapoor‘s Balaji Entertainment. Amongst the various agreements between him and Balaji during the pre-production time, he had taken the responsibility of the outdoor shoot facilities. Since the city of Istaanbul was an important part of the plot of his film, Shetty decided to shoot there. He approached the Turkish Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry too showed great enthusiasm. They agreed upon providing him the best of the facilities in terms of subsidies or subsidized rates of shooting equipment and locations. But as per the general norm, before he began shooting, he had to deposit a certain amount with the Ministry and then in his film, display the logo of the Ministry. He was asked to deposit US $ 5,40,000 that comes roughly to around Rs. 2.7 crore by the Ministry and he obliged. He fulfilled all their conditions and the shoot went on smoothly. But now it has been months since the film has released but still there has been no talk from the Turkish Ministry of reimbursing his huge deposit. After innumerous phone calls and request letters failed, Shetty has now finally approached Indian Motion Pictures Producers Association (IMPPA) to intervene in this matter on his behalf.”
An IMPPA official told us, “We have sent a letter to the Turkish Ministry of Tourism, urging them to oblige Mr. Sunil Shetty at the earliest, failing which, we request all the Hindi film producers to refrain from shooting in Turkey.”
In the recent months, various tourism departments of different countries such as the US, Malaysia, London, France, Finland, have been coming to Mumbai to woo Bollywood producers to come and shoot in their countries. Lucrative deals and subsidies are being offered and producers too have been showing interest in such deals. But after looking at Sunil Shetty’s experience, we hope the producers smarten up and make a few things clear before they enter into any such financial deals.
