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Salaam Namaste – Bollywood in Melbourne

The 2005 Bollywood movie Salaam Namaste was made here in Melbourne, and has been responsible for enhanced interest in Australia among Indians, and for a growing appreciation of Bollywood movies among Australians. 

The official “Visit Melbourne” website has a page – Bollywood in Melbourne - devoted to the movie, noting that “director Siddharth Anand had been planning to shoot the film in San Francisco, but after a visit to Melbourne in 2004 was impressed by the city's architecture, variety of settings and clear light for filming.”

The “Only Melbourne” tourism website also has a Bollywood in Melbourne page devoted to the movie. It includes an excerpt from an Urban Cinefile review:

I write this review as a proud Melbournian, so readers from elsewhere may take it with a grain of salt. Still, for locals who enjoy seeing their city on film, Salaam Namaste is the most unmissable event since Jackie Chan came to visit in the mid-1990s: three hours of synchronised dance numbers, farce, melodrama and general Bollywood craziness against a background featuring all our most photogenic tourist landmarks from the Fitzroy ...

An article in The Age – India flocks to Down Under movie – reported:

Mitu Lange, the film's line producer, said it featured recognisable Melbourne and Victorian images, including the Great Ocean Road, central Melbourne and Chapel Street. "For a lot of Indians, Melbourne is very special because the MCG is here," Ms Lange said.

Describing the film, which features Australia's Tania Zaetta, Ms Lange said: "It's about two young people who are away from India who are staying in Melbourne. One is a chef, one is a radio jockey and every time she comes on air, she says, 'Good morning, Melbourne'."

Or, as a reader on a Hindi film website wrote: "A dishy look at mores, sexual or otherwise, in the extremely urban setting of mouth-watering Melbourne, Salaam Namaste bends the rules of mainstream Hindi cinema."

"It's the best promotion Melbourne and Victoria could ever have done," said Andrew Bailey, South Asian marketing officer for La Trobe University, which features prominently in the movie.

And the Hindustan Times commented, in a report titled Salaam namaste to Oz tourism:

A Tourism Victoria spokesperson says, “Earlier, Melbourne was seen as an aspirational but remote location. By narrating a story with Melbourne as the backdrop, the film has made Indians curious about the place. Queries have increased by almost 25 per cent and more tourists are visiting the city than ever before.”

The film, about an Indian chef and an Indian medical student falling in love and living together in Melbourne, could almost be called a three-hour commercial for the city. It was the first Indian film to be entirely shot in Australia with a crew of about 70, 40 per cent of them Australian — the title song was shot on the sunny sands of Rye beach at Mornington Peninsula, just off Melbourne. And the song What’s Going On? was filmed on Bourke Street. Many other scenes were shot in landmark locations like the Great Ocean Road, Chapel Street, the Federation Square and General Post Office. Aussie babe Tania Zaetta added to the local flavour.