The “Love in Viet Nam” project has a budget of 4 million USD and began filming in September 2024 in central and southern Viet Nam. The project was announced at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, screened at the 3rd Da Nang Asian Film Festival (DANAFF 2025) and is expected to premiere in both Viet Nam and India this summer. The film brings together actors from two film industries including Shantanu Maheshwari, Avneet Kaur and Kha Ngan.
Rahul Bali, CEO of Innovations India Company, expressed his impression of the beautiful landscape, diverse nature, friendly people and unique culture of Viet Nam.
He said that the enthusiastic support of functional agencies and Vietnamese companies and enterprises during the production process created favourable conditions for the film crew to complete the filming. The film is currently in the post-production stage. It is expected to be released in more than 1,000 cinemas in India, reaching about 8 million viewers.
Affirming that cinema has become a tool to promote tourism, Rahul Bali suggested that the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism coordinate to promote the film with the focus on preparing a trailer introducing Viet Nam's landscape with a duration of about 40 seconds, showing before each film to directly introduce the image of the country, people, culture and tourist destinations of Viet Nam to the Indian people.
The Indian representative shared that the film crew has prepared the next project called Silaa, expected to start production in August with many scenes filmed at famous caves and landscapes of Viet Nam. Rahul Bali expressed his desire to continue cooperating with Vietnamese partners in the field of cinema, considering Viet Nam a potential production destination for Bollywood.
At the meeting, Deputy Minister Ho An Phong affirmed the long-standing friendship and cooperation between Viet Nam and India. In the current context, the two countries have become strategic partners and key markets for each other. Viet Nam always attaches importance to and promotes cooperation with India in many fields, including culture, tourism and cinema.
The Deputy Minister highly appreciated the close coordination between Indian producers and Vietnamese localities and enterprises, affirming that the Vietnamese Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism welcomes Bollywood filmmakers choosing Viet Nam as a filming location and release films to the world.
In the context of Viet Nam stepping up its tourism promotion campaign in India, the coordination in promoting the film is an opportunity to promote Viet Nam’s image and people to Indian friends through cinema. He highly appreciated the specific cooperation ideas from the Indian side; the two sides agreed to coordinate to launch the film and at the same time expand the scale of the “Hello Viet Nam” Festival (Namaste Viet Nam Festival), inviting Indian filmmakers, artists, businesses and wedding planning companies.
Deputy Minister Ho An Phong welcomed the cooperation initiatives and agreed with specific ideas on enhancing cultural and tourism cooperation between Viet Nam and India in the coming time.
