Key gets his Bollywood on

There's stil no word on a free trade agreement, but Prime Minister John Key got up close and business-like with two Bollywood superstars in India yesterday, taking on the role of director for a take of the movie The Players.

Mr Key visited the film set in Mumbai to promote New Zealand as a filming location, and was given the chance to take part in the film-making process, using the clapboard to open the scene.

Thongs of Indian media, with about 100 outlets represented, turned out at the event -- the actors, Abhishek Bachchan and Bipasha Basu, clearly the big attraction.

Mr Key’s efforts on the set earned kind words from rBachchan, who said the prime minister had a bright future in directing.

“He got his first take okay, so there’s a lot of promise over there. I think Mr Jackson has competition,” he said.

While Mr Key did not appear likely to give up his day job, he took the directing debut seriously, refusing to favour one actor over the other.

“They were both stunning,” Mr Key said when asked which actor had put in the better performance.

The Players, a remake of The Italian Job, is one of a number of Bollywood films that have been partially filmed in New Zealand, and Bachchan and Basu sung the country’s praises.

“Wellington and Auckland were just sensational, the crews, especially the local New Zealand ones, were very helpful,” Bachchan said.

Basu noted in particular the scenery in New Zealand, as well as the adventure sports on offer

“It’s one of the most beautiful places that we’ve visited, and I think it’s going to look gorgeous and make our film look gorgeous,” she said.

“You have the best-ever adventure sports, you guys are so lucky. And all of us, world-wide, know that it’s the safest out there.”

Mr Key this week announced an agreement with India to extend bilateral cooperation across the countries’ film industries, and said he hoped the deal would encourage more Bollywood productions to consider New Zealand as a location for filming.

“There’s a number of things, we might help with immigration, speed up the process there, if they spend enough they’ll technically be eligible for some of the rebates, so we become a very attractive destination,” Mr Key said.

“In fact, as we were walking out, the director said there were a couple of movies they were going to make in Australia but they’ve decided to switch them to New Zealand.”

Mr Key said the hope was that tourism from India would be boosted by the free publicity in the movies.

The Prime Minister, along with a delegation of about 65, have been in India since Sunday, conducting bilateral talks.

While progressing negotiations for a free trade deal was the ultimate goal of the trip, Mr Key said it was important to strengthen New Zealand’s relationship across a variety of areas, including film, sport and education.

The delegation was due to leave Mumbai for New Zealand today.