Tours offer taste of Bollywood in the Swiss Alps

When Indian filmmaker Yash Chopra came to Switzerland on his honeymoon in the 1970s, he was so impressed with the country’s snow-capped mountains, peaceful lakes and imposing glaciers that he vowed to shoot at least one scene of all his future movies there.

Chopra, who went on to be one of the most influential directors and producers of Bollywood, kept his promise, and went even further.

Thanks to a partnership with the Kuoni Travel Group in India and the Swiss company Brandinvest AG, Chopra’s production company Yash Raj Films has launched an initiative aimed at bringing movie fans right to the spots where the most memorable scenes of Bollywood blockbusters were shot.

In Bollywood productions it is often the movies’ song sequences, where the backdrop plays an important role, that are shot abroad.

“I have lived some of the most intense and emotional moments of my life in Switzerland and I have used its spectacular locales extensively in a number of my flagship films that have been seen and loved by millions worldwide,” Chopra, also known as Yashji, says on his company’s website.

“I feel it is only apt that I now share this journey with YRF (Yash Raj Films) fans through a personalized walk down memory lane, and allow them to see these moments through our eyes.”

Yash Raj Films says Chopra was honored with a prize by the Swiss government for “helping rediscover Switzerland”.

It says a lake in the Canton of Bern has been unofficially named ‘The Chopra Lake’ because it was often featured in his movies.

The tour, going under the evocative name of “Enchanted Journey,” brings enthusiastic fans across central Switzerland, spanning Saanenland, Bern, Lucerne, Mount Titlis and Ticino.

Participants view Bollywood DVDs while traveling from site to site and take part in photo shootings portraying them in the same poses as their favorite actors.

The aim of the initiative is “a desire to bring entertainment together with tourism,” said Jörg P. Krebs, an official overseeing the Indian market at Switzerland Tourism, which co-hosts the tour.

“With this trip, people can go exactly where their favorite movies were shot and even make their own photo shooting,” Krebs told Swisster.

“Indian people just love it. In the future, maybe we’ll be able to offer them the opportunity to shoot their own film.”

For the time being, participants also get a package of five Bollywood movies to bring home, Krebs said.

The week-long tour of Switzerland, costing about 2,600 Swiss francs in total, was launched last April and an overall 5,000 visitors are expected until the end of the summer, Krebs said.

What Indians – and Indian film producers – like the most about Switzerland is “the nature, without a doubt, and how accessible it is," he said.

“They want to touch the snow, or go up on a mountain with a cable car," Krebs said.

"And of course," he added with a touch of irony, "end their day at one of the many Indian restaurants we have in this country.”