Filmmaker Anurag Basu fell in love with South Korea when he shot “Gangster” there in 2004. He will return to the country next year to write a script.
During a session on “How to shoot a film in Korea” at the Film Bazaar, which aims to bridge the gap between the international and South Asian film fraternity, Basu said he has a story for which South Korea serves as an ideal shoot location.
“I have a story. It has to be based on an Asian country. So why not Korea?” he said here Friday.
Asked by IANS about the project, he said: “I am going to Korea in January or February next year and I am going to finish the script there. Then only finally I will decide whether I will make a film or not. It is just a process. I will just go there, see places and finish the script there.”
And he wants more Indian filmmakers to visit South Korea to shoot movies.
“Generally what happens is, when one filmmaker shoots in a particular country, others follow suit. But that didn’t happen with South Korea. Maybe, I didn’t shoot it properly. Over the last 10 years, I got many enquiries related to the country. Sajid Nadiadwala also called me, then I don’t know what happened,” said the “Barfi!” director, who wants to capture the changing colours of four seasons in South Korea.
“When I was shooting ‘Gangster’ there, I was going through chemotherapy. There was something in the air of Korea. I didn’t get any side effects of chemotherapy,” he added.
Basu also urged fellow filmmakers to shoot there as it was not very expensive.
“I was given Rs.2 crore to make ‘Gangster’. The budget was tight, but we managed to finish shooting in 15 days there. I mostly took wide shots,” he said.
Basu, who is currently working on “Jagga Jasoos”, said Cape Town and Switzerland have been overexposed and that filmmakers should explore other countries.
“Whole of Africa has to be explored by Indians and rather than going to Thailand all the time, there are other Asian countries too like Vietnam and Laos. They are beautiful,” he said.