CHENNAI, Aug 18 — Keen to see for yourself the locations where the blockbuster Indian movie Kabali was shot in Malaysia?
The good news is Tourism Malaysia together with AirTravel Enterprises India Limited (ATE) are introducing the Malaysia Kabali-package deal as one of their latest promotional strategy to draw Indian travellers to Malaysia.
The Kollywood superstar Rajinikanth’s 159th movie is a big hit and it has indirectly promoted the Malaysian locations in India and to his legions of fans across the world.
In this regard, Tourism Malaysia’s South India/Sri Lanka Director Noor Azman Samsudin said the four days/three nights tour package starting at INR 24,900 Rupees (RM1,500) per person (excluding airfare), was aimed to bring one million tourists from the Indian sub-continent to Malaysia this year.
“Tourism Malaysia and ATE want Indian travellers to come and experience personally the prominent places the down-to-earth star chose for his movie shooting, instead of just watching the places on the screen.
“Therefore, the package was specially designed and launched for Rajni’s fans to go and visit the places of Kabali shooting and gain rare opportunity like how Rajinikanth felt about Malaysia’s uniqueness,” he told Bernama here.
Noor Azman was speaking at the Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents’s (MATTA) inaugural road show in India to tap a larger share of the Indian outbound travel market.
The six-day Bangalore and Chennai marketing and promotion tour that ended on August 13 was aimed at India’s outbound travel which is growing 15 to 20 per cent annually and is estimated to rise to around 50 million tourists by 2020.
In the film superstar Rajinikanth, whose real name is Shivaji Rao, played the role of an ageing underworld don in Malaysia named Kabaliswaran, lending his name to the title of the movie.
The film directed by Pa. Ranjith was filmed at several locations in Malaysia, including Kuala Lumpur and Carey Island. Several local actors like Datuk Rosyam Nor, Norman Hakim, Zack Taipan, as well as Winston Chao of Taiwan also appeared in the movie.
According to Noor Azman, the Malaysia-Kabali package offered a full-day tour to the most iconic and popular tourist attractions related to the film, namely Petronas Twin Towers, Batu Caves, KLCC, Grand Salon Lobby Lounge of Palace of Golden Horses, Selangor Royal Club, Malacca and Carey Island.
In addition, India has always been an important market for Malaysia and currently ranks sixth among countries in terms of total tourists arrivals in Malaysia.
Together with all year-round promotion and Kabali packages, Noor Azman said Malaysia expected to see a rise in the number of Indian tourists arrivals this year following a drop of 4.7 per cent (168,922) in the first quarter of this year.
Last year, 177,253 Indian tourists came to Malaysia in the first quarter, with the total for the year 2015 being 722,141.
Meanwhile, ATE vice-president (Leisure) J. Manoj Dass said after Rajinikanth, another Kollywood heartthrob Suriya Sivakumar has chosen Malaysia as his preferred destination to shoot the latest sequel in the franchise of Singham 3.
Speaking to Bernama recently, he said Suriya and his production team of 40 people would be shooting some action and song sequences of the highly anticipated movie at the end of August with Putrajaya and Kuala Lumpur being the backdrop.
Malaysia the destination for film tourism
“Malaysia has always been the best destination for film tourism based on its fully-integrated production facilities, an easy-going and friendly people and most importantly sharing cultural similarities with other nations and the locations here provide cost-saving of 30-40 per cent,” he said.
With 21-years of experience as film location manager, Manoj, who was also involved in both Singham 1 and 2 production, said both ATE and Tourism Malaysia were in midst of preparing a Suriya package for his ardent fans to come and visit Malaysia.
“Just like Singham 2’s climax sequence shot in Malaysia, Singham 3 will also showcase few important scenes at Petronas Twin Tower, KL Tower and several high-rise building,” he said.
Manoj added Indian filmmakers were also showing interest on Legoland Malaysia Resort, situated in Nusajaya, Johor for a colourful backdrop setting for their films.
Besides Kabali and Singham 3, South Indian famous actor Vikram’s film Iru Mugan had completed shooting in Malaysia early this year. Several popular
Bollywood movies were also shot in Malaysia such as Don and Don 2, Fanna, Dil Maange More, Hum Kisi Se Kum Nahin, Humraaz and Yaadein.
A significant portion of Shah Rukh Khan’s Don was filmed in Malaysia, including the Malacca prison, Petronas Towers and the sky bridge in Langkawi. — Bernama
