South Australia set to wow Bollywood audiences

Commanding the biggest budget of any Bollywood movie to date, audiences are in for a cinematic treat as “Love Story 2050” hits the big screen having premiered in London this week (2nd July 2008).

Not only offering everything that audiences love and have come to expect from a Bollywood movie - beautiful stars and settings, heroic battles between good and evil, love and romance, music and dance - this movie offers more than its predecessors as it is set in the future, boasts state of the art special effects and was filmed on location in South Australia (southaustralia.com).

The film’s stars are Harman Baweja, making his big screen debut, and Priyanka Chopra, the popular leading lady and former Miss World (2000). Priyanka is also only the second woman to win the “Filmfare Best Villain” award for her critically acclaimed performance in “Aitraaz”.

Set in 2050, the stars play Karan and Sana whose romance crosses time and space, switching between present day South Australia and futuristic Mumbai. This is a story filled with iconic South Australian landscapes and futuristic flying cars, villains and ninjas, laser guns and robots.

Filmed on South Australia’s Kangaroo Island (renowned as Australia’s Galapagos), in the Outback and in the State capital Adelaide, it is easy to recreate one’s own South Australian Love Story.

Commenting on the launch of this Bollywood epic, Neil Saunders, UK marketing manager of the South Australian Tourism Commission said: “As a destination, South Australia is very proud to have been the setting for this exciting, ground breaking movie as making movies is something we already know a lot about. Our portfolio of internationally acclaimed films includes Mad Max, Gallipoli, Shine, Picnic at Hanging Rock and Breaker Morant.

“We are also looking forward to the launch, later in the year, of the new Baz Luhrmann movie “Australia” starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman which we also believe will place South Australia in a positive spotlight, encouraging people to visit and personally experience the destination.”

Top ten places that would make a great holiday in South Australia include:

1. The Adelaide Oval – one of the world’s most celebrated cricket pitches
2. The Bradman Collection - featuring memorabilia from a cricketing legend
3. Central Market – one of Australia’s largest, most colourful and diverse food markets
4. Glenelg – providing Adelaide with easy access to the beach and aquatic activities
5. Kangaroo Island – renowned for its prolific free roaming native wildlife
6. Barossa – a world famous wine growing region home to Jacob’s Creek, Penfolds
7. Cleland Wildlife Park – an animal sanctuary on the city outskirts
8. Eating in Adelaide - Tandoori Oven, Jasmin, Star of Siam, Good Life Organic Pizza
9. Places to stay - The Hyatt, The Ozone Seafront
10. Adelaide Nightlife - Escobar, Distil, Moskva Vodka Bar and Bar Cuba

Freedom Australia (freedomaustralia.co.uk) can put together a three-centre, two-week itinerary to South Australia featuring Adelaide, Kangaroo Island and the Flinders Ranges with prices starting from £1,995 per person for departures 1st September – 30th November 2008. This price includes international flights, taxes and transfers and accommodation as follows:

- 8 nights in the Horizons Hotel in Adelaide
- one night Ozone Seafront Hotel on Kangaroo Island with return transfers from Adelaide
- 2 days nature and wildlife touring on Kangaroo Island
- a 4WD adventure to the Flinders Ranges with accommodation at Wilpena Pound Resort
- tour and wine tasting in the Barossa Valley

Visitors to South Australia (southaustralia.com) can easily experience all things Australian – fine food and wine, art and culture, festivals and music, adventure and activity, natural history and pioneering history, self-drive and rail travel, fishing and diving, cities and outback, peninsulas and rivers, sandy beaches and salt lakes, granite ranges and gibber plains, bushwalking and cruising.

Activities in South Australia include: swimming, snorkelling, water skiing, surfing, scuba/wreck/cave and shark diving, river/coastal and deep sea fishing, swimming with sea lions and dolphins, sea kayaking, canoeing, rafting, sailing, riverboat and paddle steamer cruising, walking, trekking, camel trekking, horse riding, cycling, mountain biking, motorbiking, golf, hot air ballooning and wine tasting.

Wildlife viewing opportunities include: kangaroo, wallabie, wombat, koala, platypus, fairy penguin, wedgetail eagle, Australian sea lion, Australian fur seal, echidna, pelican, bandicoot, bettong, great white shark, bottlenose dolphin, cuttlefish, southern right whales, leafy sea dragons and pygmy possums.

Accommodation options include: Historic homesteads, station and farmstays, boutique b&b’s, lighthouse keepers’ cottages, luxury tented camps, sleeping under the stars in swags.

Rail journeys include: The Ghan – Adelaide to Darwin; The Indian Pacific – Adelaide to Perth, Adelaide to Sydney.

For more information, visit Southaustralia.com.