TEHRAN – Iranian director Qorban Mohammadpur has said that making films abroad is more economical than at home.

He is making a series edition to his movie “Salam Mumbai” with Bollywood cinema in India. Regrettably, his previous project, “Falling in Love in Hanoi”, which was being produced with a Vietnamese crew in their country, remained unfinished due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

“If we collaborate with other countries on production, we can easily afford the cost of production; for example, if we make a film with Vietnam, the country not only provides a portion of the start-up capital, but also we would receive 70 percent of the box office revenue,” Mohammadpur told the Persian service of MNA on Sunday.

“In addition, a film star’s salary in Vietnam is $50,000, while Iranian stars won’t accept less than 5 billion rials (over $172,000) for a project in Iran,” he added.   

He said that Iranian cinema is over, and called it a bankrupt business, and added, “Due to the misguided policymaking by officials over the past two years, Iranian cinema has been led to a complete breakdown, as there is a major decline in the number of filmgoers in the country.”       

“Meanwhile, the Bollywood cinema doesn’t confine its production to only domestic screenings; their films were distributed in numerous countries,” he noted.    

“In Iran, nine out of ten films cannot cover the cost of their advertisements, and this means that Iranian cinema is over. Production only by governmental organizations is possible, because, for the organizations, it doesn’t matter if their films fail to earn a return on capital. There is a catastrophic decline in the number of film productions by the private sector, therefore, I believe that Iranian cinema is dead,” Mohammadpur explained.

He said that Iranian-set films are boring, and added that Iranian films need to be shot on location abroad to attract new audiences.

“Bollywood directors make their films on location in Europe or America to draw people to theaters and we can make our films in countries such as India, Vietnam or South Korea to attract larger audiences,” Mohammadpur noted.

He is currently making “Salam Mumbai”, which is said to be the first series to be available on both Iranian and Indian VOD platforms.

Earlier in 2021, he said that it will be produced in 20 episodes, seven of which will be made in Mumbai and 13 in Tehran.

He made a film edition of “Salam Mumbai” in 2016 with a number of Iranian and Bollywood cast and crew members. In 2018, he also directed “The Devil’s Daughter” in India. 

Photo: Director Qorban Mohammadpur in an undated photo. (Mehr/Ashraf Tabatabai)

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