Jai Ho! Bollywood's Back in "Global Coup" for Miami

A much-needed boost for the South Florida economy could be coming all the way from India, complete with song and dance numbers. The second major Bollywood film production of the last twelve months is set to get underway in Miami in February, this one even bigger than the last.

And that's saying something. Dostana, which wrapped last year after filming all around Miami and South Florida-as-Miami, went on to be one of the year's biggest blockbusters in Mumbai and beyond. 

Now Shahrukh Khan, commonly referred to as Bollywood's answer to Brad Pitt and George Clooney rolled into one, is heading to the Magic City to make Ra.One, a film in which he plays a Miami software engineer who accidentally gives life to "techo-monster" that will go on to terrorize Brickell, South Beach, and parts of Downtown. Like Lindsay Lohan in metallic leggings, if that particular monster had the power of the universe's most popular film industry behind her (Bollywood passed Hollywood in viewership in 2004, and hasn't looked back).

The latter part is what has area film industry and tourism officials hyped. Bollywood's quick return to Miami bodes well for its continued use as a location, but with the crew coming from overseas and production budgets much, much smaller than Hollywood's (Ra.One will be made for about $3 million), the real benefit will be seen in tourism dollars.

Spikes in travel by Indian tourists, commonly called the "Bollywood Effect," have regularly been experienced by destinations used as locations in Hindi-language films. For the team behind Ra.One to have chosen Miami over San Francisco, Prague, London, and Tokyo, is a "global marketing coup."

"[India] is a huge market and language is not a barrier, as it is in China,'' senior vice president of marketing for the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau Rolando Aedo told the Miami Herald, comparing the two biggest burgeoning tourism markets. "The fact that we've got this movie that's going to deliver more media impressions than I could ever afford to buy, even in the best of times -- the timing is extremely fortunate.''

We'll say. With tourist taxes in Miami-Dade having fallen as much as 24% this fall, ogling India's answer to George and Brad and giving directions to bewildered tourists on the street is the least we can do.

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