11 Bollywood movies that give the Middle East a starring role

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Here’s a look at 11 Bollywood productions that were shot outside of India – many within the Middle East, including the UAE.

1 Phantom

Thursday marks the release of the eagerly anticipated Bollywood political thriller Phantom. The film, starring Saif Ali Khan and Katrina Kaif and directed by Kabir Khan, is centred around the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai, placing them against the backdrop of global terrorism.

There has been a lot of controversy around the film and it has been banned in Pakistan. Khan and Kaif took lessons in Arabic and Kurdish and did many of the stunts themselves.

The film also reflects a growing Bollywood trend: it was shot mostly outside India – about 10 per cent was in Lebanon, including downtown Beirut, the nearby area of Khandaq Al Ghameeq and the mountain town of Kfardebian.

2 Bang Bang!

Director Siddharth Anand's 2014 remake of the Tom Cruise-Cameron Diaz film Knight and Day, featuring Hrithik Roshan and Katrina Kaif, was the first Bollywood project to be filmed and co-produced largely in Abu Dhabi. Portions of the film were also shot in Thailand and Greece. The Abu Dhabi segment was shot last year in May in locations including the Corniche, Liwa Oasis, Hyatt Capital Gate hotel, Qasr Al Sarab, Emirates Palace and Yas Island. One of the most exciting segments was a car chase involving 120 cars, including Formula One cars.

3 Happy New Year

One of the highest grossing Bollywood films of all time, Happy New Year starred Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, Abhishek Bachchan, Boman Irani, Sonu Sood, Vivaan Shah and Jackie Shroff and was shot almost entirely in Dubai. Director Farah Khan says that she wrote the script for the 2014 film with Dubai in mind, specifically its climax, which was centred around New Year's Eve at Atlantis, The Palm. The film also became one of the biggest projects in terms of local casting, with more than 1,600 extras cast from across the UAE.

4 Hamari Adhuri Kahani

A commercial and critical flop, Hamari Adhuri Kahani, which was released this year, did manage to showcase the UAE beautifully. The romantic-drama, directed by Mohit Suri, starred Emraan Hashmi, Vidya Balan and Rajkummar Rao and had a 16-day shooting schedule in Dubai. Among the locations featured in the film was Meena Bazaar, Dubai Creek, Dubai International Airport and Miracle Garden. Some of the most stunning sequences, including the song Hasi Ban Gaye, were shot at Qasr Al Sarab in the Liwa Desert.

5 Kajraare

The 2010 release Kajraare was the first Bollywood film to be shot in gorgeous Petra, Jordan. Directed by Pooja Bhatt and starring the singer and composer Himesh Reshammiya opposite the Pakistani actress Sara Loren, the film bombed at the box office, but drew Bollywood's attention to Jordan as a potential shooting location. Krrish 3 (2013), starring Hrithik Roshan, was also partially shot there.

6 Baby

This year's spy-thriller Baby, directed by Neeraj Pandey and starring Akshay Kumar, Danny Denzongpa, Anupam Kher, Rana Daggubati and Taapsee Pannu, was shot in multiple locations in Nepal, Sri Lanka, Turkey and the UAE. The 120-strong unit filmed in Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and Liwa in October of last year, prompting Kumar to say: "You just can't shoot like this in Mumbai. They won't close a part of the street for you – they'd rather close the shoot." His co-star Kher, a frequent visitor, added that the Emirates is an ideal international location for shooting Indian films because it is close to Mumbai, offers a variety of suitable extras and because the authorities have made it easy to get permission to shoot here.

7 Airlift

The soon-to-be-released Akshay Kumar starrer Airlift is one of the latest films to have been shot in the UAE. The war thriller, set during on the Gulf War, has modern-day Ras Al Khaimah standing in for Kuwait and Baghdad. Shooting took place in February and March this year, with a 180-strong unit landing from India and several hundred extras cast locally.

8 Ready

The 2011 action-romantic comedy, directed by Anees Bazmee and starring Salman Khan and Asin, was originally supposed to be shot in Mauritius. At Khan’s request, the location was changed to Sri Lanka – a country he preferred due to its proximity to India and because he felt it was a more suitable landscape. Almost half of the film was shot in Colombo and Bentota over 27 days. It turned out to be the second-­highest grossing film of the year.

9 Ek Tha Tiger

The production for the 2012 film, with Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif in the lead, the eighth highest-grossing Bollywood film of all time, spanned five countries. In addition to Ireland, parts of the shoot took place in Cuba, Hong Kong and Thailand. The production crew also spent two months in Istanbul.

10 Guru

The 2007 drama, which was loosely based on the life of Indian business magnate Dhirubhai Ambani, was directed by Mani Ratnam and starred Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai. Portions of the film were shot in Turkey, including the song Mayya Mayya, which was shot in Istanbul's Nuruosmaniye Mosque.

11 Dil Dhadakne Do

Zoya Akhtar's latest directorial venture, Dil Dhadakne Do, showcased exotic Mediterranean locations. The comedy-drama, released earlier this year, starred Anil Kapoor, Shefali Shah, Priyanka Chopra, Ranveer Singh and Anushka Sharma. While most of the film was shot aboard a cruise ship as it sailed through the Mediterranean, portions were filmed at various ports of call, which included a number of locations in Turkey.