Exotic Kuttanad lures tinsel world

The sylvan settings of water-logged Kuttanad in Kerala has become a favoured location for film shooting, especially for song-and-dance sequences of big-budget movies. Over the years, at least 12 films, including a couple of Bollywood movies, have been partly shot in Kuttanad with its vast stretches of paddy fields, coconut gardens and house boats giving a panoramic touch to picturisation.

Besides the visual appeal of the exotic locale, lake cruises and rice-and-fish Kuttanad cuisine offer some relief to the overworked artists after their hectic indoor shooting, according to local production organisers.

'Style prince' Rajnikanth is scheduled to have a shooting session in Kuttanad for his new film 'Kuselan' next month, the local production manager for the movie A Kabeer told. "The film is mostly shot in a studio in Hyderabad but an important song-and-dance sequence featuring about 90 dancers is to be picturised here," Kabeer said.

Bollywood films to which Kuttanad served as location included 'Tashan' and a couple of Telugu, Bengali and Punjabi production units have also shown interest in Kuttanad, he said.

The film shootings bring some supplementary income to the common people in the area at a time when its agriculture and fishery activities were facing a grim crisis.

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