Bollywood Tour in Mumbai

Second only to cricket – or is it the other way around? – is the Indian obsession with Bollywood (Mumbai Film Industry). The glitz, them glam, the masala movie, the melodrama and the aspirational lifestyles portrayed on screen took the masses by storm several decades ago and the craze is only getting stronger. Fuelled by the obsession to ‘reach for the stars’, it seems it’s almost every Indian’s ambition to take a Bollywood tour, even if it means only a peep at the actors’ homes from the outside. Not surprisingly, the famous Mumbai Darshan (sightseeing) tour run by the State Tourism Department and private tour operators in Mumbai have a mini Bollywood tour on their itinerary. This usually includes a drive-by the homes of the big stars, including the Bachchans in Juhu, and Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan in Bandra. Well, much of the action takes place on the sets of studios, where a large percentage of films are shot. There are structured Bollywood tours in Mumbai as Bollywood Tourism that takes tourists on location. Undoubtedly, the place to visit is Film City in Goregaon (East). Located in the lush green environs of Aarey Colony are more than 500 acres of land on which more than 40 film studios are located. This indeed is Bollywood’s dream factory and a drive-through Aarey Colony is on every Bollywood tour itinerary. Another popular Bollywood tour destination is R K Studios in Chembur, the historic studio owned by the first family of Bollywood – the Kapoors. Another, more recent destination, is N D Studio in Karjat on the outskirts of Mumbai. Located just off the Mumbai-Pune highway, the studio is about five years old and is home to the sets of many popular Bollywood movies. Bollywood tour package launched as recently as 2010 that has secured permission to take foreign tourists inside studio loactions. So for the first time, tourists will get an exclusive look at the inside of the Bollywood dream factory – where those notoriously melodramatic dream sequences are shot, where those hip-swinging love songs are enacted, where crocodile tears are shed over imaginary tragedies, and where the gods decide the fate of mere celluloid mortals. Bollywood has been the staple of the Indian disapora across continents for a long, long time. So if popular stars were shaking a leg together back home, these movies were also making waves in countries where large swathes of the Indian population have settled. But there’s another phenomenon fast unfolding – the globalisaiton of Indian cinema, making it popular among other ethnic groups as well. Admittedly, it’s recent but films like the Shah Rukh Khan starrer My Name Is Khan, Aamir Khan starrer 3 Idiots and the Hrithik Roshan-Barbara Mori starrer Kites are designed to connect with an international audience. And if there’s one film that’s probably done more than any other to put Bollywood and Mumbai on the world map it’s Danny Boyle’s multiple Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionnaire. So come join us on a Bollywood tour when you are in Mumbai! Write to info@ultimatetourism.com for more information!