Cuba offers itself as Bollywood shooting destination

Panaji, Feb 17: Cuba is serenading Bollywood`s bigwigs to use the Latin American country for shooting Bollywood films, the Cuban ambassador to India Tuesday said.

In Goa to inaugurate four-day Cuban film festival, Miguel Angel Ramirez Ramos said that he was holding parleys with players in the Indian mainstream film industry and pitching Cuba as a film shooting destination. "We are talking to some Bollywood names, asking them to shoot a movie in Cuba, but it will not be prudent to mention any name right now," Ramos said, speaking to reporters at a press conference here. He described these overtures as part of Cuba`s moves to improve cultural as well as bilateral ties between the two countries. Denouncing Hollywood`s repeated portrayal of Cuba as unfair and wrong, Ramos said that Cuban cinema reflected the `real` Cuban society. "Nations can be judged by the cinema they make. Cuban people are very open. Cuban cinema is openly critical of the contradictions in society. This is not possible in a closed society, which Hollywood perceives us as," he said. The Cuban film festival in Goa is being jointly hosted by the Entertainment Society of Goa and the Centre for Latin American Studies of the Goa University and will screen classic films and documentaries like "La Muerte De Un Burocrata" (Death of a Bureaucrat), "Lucia" and "Yo soy del Son a la Salsa" (From Son to Salsa) from Feb 19 to 22. "We want to enhance cultural and bilateral ties between India and Cuba," the Cuban ambassador said. Describing Goa as a home away from a Latin home, Ramos said that Goa resembled Cuba in many ways. "This place has a Latin feel, the homes, the people, even the drive by the sea in Panaji reminds distinctly of Havana," he said. IANS