Mumbai Film City

[Norjak71]

Over 100 'bollywood' films are made in India's ever expanding film universe. Has anyone ever been here or have any interest in going i'd like to ask some more questions about it if possible. I even heard you can be a film extra on set if you have special approval beforehand, as it's blocked off for most tourists, or not accessible most of the year.

 

[tabby]

I heard the same thing. I can't remember where in the forum, but there was a thread here somewhere that talked about where you can possibly appear as an extra in the film. I just forgot the name of the place, but members here made mention that if you go to this place in India, there's a likelihood that you can be hired to appear as extra. You may not get the pay though, and may end up spending hours on the set. But the comments were just happy to share that even without the pay, it could prove an interesting experience for any Caucasian dreaming to appear in a Bollywood movie.
I'll try to look up for the thread and see if I can find it.

@Norjak71 hi again!
I browsed through the whole forum and found the thread I mentioned before. Perhaps you might want to check it out yourself:
Fun Idea - Be An Extra In A Bollywood Movie!

According to the original thread poster, if you are Caucasian and you hang out to places such as Colaba Causeway, Leopold Cafe, or Gateway of India and tell people that you want to be an extra in a Bollywood film, someone just might approach you. Good luck.

 

[briannagodess]

Yes, there's actually lots of "tours" to choose from if you want to visit the Mumbai Film City. The one you mentioned, where you can be an extra in a movie, you can actually pursue different ways to do that:

• Salvation Army Red Shield Hostel. You can choose this accommodation and ask the staff about how to become an extra for a Bollywood movie. They will then take care of the rest.

• Be found by recruiters. You can hang out in places like the Gateway of India, Leopold's Cafe and Marine Drive. If you're lucky, a recruiter will ask you to be an extra in a film. Basically, most of the Bollywood films have sets or scenes in New York or Paris which is why they need some foreign extras.

You can actually get paid by being an extra, expect about Rs 500 just for a few minutes of acting. Pretty cool, right? If you would like to access other Mumbai City Tours, here are some more options:

• Film City Tour. Unfortunately, foreign nationals aren't allowed in this tour. This place has several gardens, theatres and recording rooms which locals can visit.

• Bollywood Dream Tour. Foreigners can tour here. You get to see a video about the history of Bollywood, the dubbing studio and even try and dub famous lines in Bollywood movies.

• Live Show Tour. You get to see famous Indian actors and if permitted, can actually take pictures with them.

I hope this helps!

P.S.

I'd be open to answer any of your other question, just post them here!

 

[vegito12]

It can be a nice experience to tour the movie industry in India and depends on the cost of pass it will mean which areas you get to tour and who you will meet and if the famous actors are around you may even get to talk to them and it can also depend on time as well and how the schedule is. The movie industry does use some movies from Hollywood as reference like The Godfather and Scarface and even the Bronx tale film in some of the older movies some scenes are similar to the original move and can be interesting to see a movie which is like the Indian version of the Hollywood one. Amercian people as extras have been shown to be someone in the background or a villain and Sylvester Stallone appears in Kambakkht Ishq where he saves the main actress from street thugs, and was quite amazing to see them in a movie of different language and enjoyed it as well.

 

[Danny Luke]

I for one didn't visit Mumbai Film City myself but I've heard and read a lot about it. It's no secret that Mumbai is one of the most productive film center in the country if not the world. So it would definitely be interesting to go there and see how things are done. I've heard that there are a lot of tour packages in the area and these are the ones you should take if you truly want to experience Bollywood.