Bollywood feature heads to film in Malta

A major new Bollywood film is heading to shoot in Malta with cameras set to roll from 5 June.

According to the Hindustan Times, Thugs of Hindostan will film on board two large, specially constructed ships that took two months to build and which are currently moored on the Maltese coast.

The feature is an adaptation of the novel Confessions of a Thug, which examines the pre-independence thug culture in India. It stars Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan, Katrina Kaif and Fatima Sana Shaikh.

Mumbai-based Yash Raj Films is behind the project with Vijay Krishna Acharya directing from his own screenplay. He said in a statement quoted by the same news outlet: “The set of the film is in a high-security water zone, with restricted access.

“Both these ships have been built in the early eighteenth-century style when vessels would carry cannons and other weapons. An international crew has been hard at work creating these elaborate ships in Malta. Most of the portions filmed on board these ships involve high-octane action.”

Malta regularly hosts international shoots, with a cash rebate on offer of up to 27% which was extended in 2014 to include post-production as an eligible cost, also covering television and transmedia.

Director Kenneth Branagh chose Malta as one of the international locations for his starry version of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express which began shooting in the UK in November 2016. The previous year saw Michael Fassbender in Malta filming his starring role in the big-screen adaptation of video game series Assassin’s Creed.