Kids' classic 'Heidi' to be the first foreign film shot in Noida

After stars such as Salman Khan, Sonam Kapoor, and Akshay Kumar coming to Noida to shoot, the NCR suburb will soon play host to British actors too ' the shoot of an Indo-British co-produced adaptation of the popular children's novel Heidi this year. Swiss author Johanna Spyri's children's book Heidi is being adapted for the silver screen by British producer Simon Wright and Indian filmmaker Sheetal Talwar.Producers have finalised Noida as the location for the film's indoor shoots.
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The film, tentatively titled 'Heidi ' Queen of the Mountains,' is being directed by National Award-winner Bhavna Talwar. According to the producers, the film will be released in the second half of 2016, and is the first installment of a trilogy. Sheetal Talwar, the film's producer, tells us, 'We are shooting one schedule of the film in Noida. We have more or less zeroed in on the dates, but will finalise the schedule and the locations in Noida over the next two weeks.' The first schedule of the film was shot in the UK with the principal star cast, which includes British actors such as Bill Nighy, Helen Baxendale, Mark Williams and Emilia Fox. However, the entire cast will not be making the trip to India. Talwar elaborates, 'Bill won't be a part of the Indian schedule, but Helen and Emilia will travel down to Noida, along with other supporting actors.'
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Spyri's novel, which tells the tale of a young girl in her grandfathers care in the Swiss Alps, is considered a literary classic. With over 50 million copies of the book sold worldwide, it remains one of the bestselling children's books of all time. And this isn't the first time that the story is being adapted. There are over two dozen film and TV adaptations of the story in several languages. The more popular among the lot are a 1937 film adaptation that starred Shirley Temple in the title role, and a 1974 Japanese anime called Heidi, Girl Of The Alps, which was later made into an English-dubbed movie called The Story Of Heidi.
Noida has seen a number of film shoots in the recent past, with movies like Salman Khan's hit Prem Ratan Dhan Paayo and Akshay Kumar-starrer Baby both being shot at private universities in the city. However, Heidi will be the first international film to be shot in Noida. So far, foreign films shot in UP have largely been limited to outdoor shoots in Varanasi and Agra. Sources say that it was actually the presence of Film City in Noida that swung the scales in its favour, as the makers of Heidi were looking at a place in NCR for shooting indoor sequences. Talwar hints that Noida might act as the shooting location for the film's planned sequels as well. He says, 'We have planned to film the interior portions of Heidi in Noida, and hopefully this will be the first of the many films we have planned to shoot here.'
The announcement of Heidi's shoot in Noida comes on the heels of the UP government announcing subsidies for the shooting of foreign films in the state. In a recent meeting of the UP Film Development Council (UPFDC) and UP's nodal film body Film Bandhu, it was decided that any foreign film being made in the state will also be eligible for subsidy, as per the policy formulated by the state government. 'In terms of film shootings, Varanasi, Lucknow and Agra have been very popular, but now we also want people to look at other places in the state and showcase those in their films too,' UPFDC vice chairman Gaurav Dwivedi was quoted as saying. The makers of Heidi, however, did not clarify whether the subsidy played any part in their choice of shooting locale.