TEHRAN – Iranian director Korban Mohammadpur said it was more economical to make films abroad than domestically.
He is making a series version of his movie ‘Salam Mumbai’ in Indian Bollywood Cinema. Unfortunately, his previous project “Falling in Love in Hanoi”, which had been produced in his home country with a Vietnamese crew due to his COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, was left unfinished. remained.
“If we cooperate with other countries on production, we can easily cover the production costs. %,” Mohammadpur told the MNA’s Farsi-language service on Sunday.
Furthermore, while a film star’s salary in Vietnam is $50,000, Iranian stars will not accept less than 5 billion rials (over $172,000) for projects in Iran.
He said that Iranian cinema was over, calling it a bankrupt business, adding that “wrong policy decisions by the authorities over the past two years have led to the complete collapse of Iranian cinema. The number of filmgoers in the country has been greatly reduced.” ”
Bollywood cinema, on the other hand, does not limit its production to domestic screenings only. Their films have been distributed in many countries,” he said.
“In Iran, 9 out of 10 films fail to pay for advertising, which means the end of Iranian cinema. They don’t care if their films fail to generate a return on capital.I believe Iranian cinema is dead as the number of private sector film productions has declined catastrophically.” explained Mohammadpour.
He said films set in Iran are boring, adding that Iranian films need to be shot on foreign locations in order to attract new audiences.
“Bollywood directors make films on locations in Europe and America to attract people to theaters. We make films in countries like India, Vietnam and South Korea to attract more audiences. We can do that,” said Mohammadpur.
He is currently producing ‘Salam Mumbai’, which is said to be the first series available on both Iranian and Indian VOD platforms.
In early 2021, he said it will be produced in 20 episodes, seven of which will be in Mumbai and 13 in Tehran.
In 2016, he produced a film version of ‘Salam Mumbai’ with a large Iranian and Bollywood cast and crew. In 2018, he also directed The Devil’s Daughter in India.
Photo: Director Koban Mohammadpur in undated photo. (Mehr/Ashraf Tabatabai)
MMS/Yaw
