It isn't South Africa or Argentina, with their chameleon-like ability to transform into other locales, so for foreign prodcos looking to shoot in India, it's all about capturing the Indian look.

Home to Bollywood, the world's most prolific film industry, India boasts a strong infrastructure, located primarily in Mumbai (formerly Bombay), Chennai and Hyderabad, and crews that are known for their size as much as their resourcefulness.

Srila Chatterjee is an EP at Mumbai-based Highlight Films, a production service company that recently worked with Soft Citizen, Toronto on a Doritos campaign. She says that the size of local crews, which are three to five times what one would expect in the US, stem from an industry that didn't traditionally insure film equipment, therefore, bodies were needed to safeguard it. "In India, everything, even a plug, comes with an attendant."

Despite their numbers, crews are inexpensive and, as Shilo, New York EP Tracey Chandler and director Andre Stringer found out, efficient.

"They didn't have a green screen stage available for us," says Stringer about Shilo's experience shooting a spot for Honda with local service company Stratum Films. "The way that they overcame the challenge was to take over a big warehouse and build one from scratch. They hired a big crew and over the course of a couple days, they rented a lot of wood, bought a lot of paint and put the whole thing together in front of our eyes."

Constructing materials rather than purchasing them is the less expensive option in India. Last year, when director Tom Kuntz needed to dress his actors for Tanqueray's "Globe Probe" webfilm, the stylist hit the sewing machine.

"None of the clothes the actors wore were store bought," says Kuntz. "So if you just want a guy in jeans and a T-shirt, they will make jeans and a T-shirt because to buy [them] in India is expensive."

While very capable and accommodating, adjusting to these differences in the way that Indian crews work can be challenging, as is dealing with the crowds in the world's second most populous country. When shooting a street scene, Shilo had to contend with traffic and local onlookers as there was no apparatus in place to officially close off the location.

Then there is India's notorious heat, which regularly exceeds 100F, not including the humidity, in the summer monsoon season (June to September). The most comfortable time to shoot in India is during the post-monsoon to winter season (November to February) when temperatures average 75F.

The key to dealing with India's many eccentricities, says Soft Citizen EP Link York, is finding a good production service company that is savvy to Western expectations and will communicate these differences beforehand. He also suggests longer prep times that factor in equipment availability.

"The standard stuff is there but certain specialty gear may not be readily available," says York. "Best to send camera and crane lists well in advance to know what you can expect to find."

It's also best to bring one or two leads if the script calls for non-Indian actors. Avinash Shankar, president and EP of Stratum Films, says that there is a pool of Caucasian actors who have come to India to try their hand in Bollywood but talent is homogenous.

Despite the difficulties, producers say the dual experience of India's bedlam and its beauty is enough for a return visit.

"It was interesting to see the chaos of the situation come out in a great end product," says Shilo's Stringer. "The cultural approach is different but it has that uniqueness that makes it more interesting than the other overseas places that I've shot."

Highlight Films http://www.highlightfilms.com
MJZ http://www.mjz.com
Shilo http://www.shilodesign.com
Soft Citizen http://www.softcitizen.com
Stratum Films http://www.stratumfilms.com