Written by Shona Smith on Sep 19, 2019. Posted in On Location

Risky car chase filmed on location in Arctic Finland for Bollywood Action, War

Produced by India’s Yash Raj Films, the action packed War came to Finland in search of Arctic locations for the stunt sequence.

War is set to be one of Bollywood’s biggest action films of the year directed by Siddharth Anand and starring action stars Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff with Vaani Kapoor taking the role of leading lady.

Having shot in seven countries and fifteen international cities, the production chose Finland to shoot a dramatic car chase in March 2019.

Game of Thrones and Batman stunt coordinator Paul Jennings directed the risky car chase that shot on both river ice and forest roads in the Rovaniemi region of Finnish Lapland.

Locations in both Sweden and Finland were both considered for the shoot, says Anna Niemelä, Film Commissioner at House of Lapland, but the production settled upon Rovaniemi to host the shoot with Grillifilms handling the shoot.

Director Siddarth Anand explains “we needed an unobstructed expanse of ice. We found that high up in the Arctic and a fantastic production team from Finland to handle the kind of scale we wanted. The Finnish crew professional and organized—gave us one of the most brilliant working experiences we’ve had. Finland’s conditions were quite challenging during the winter, but our team was well-equipped and prepared. And what we found in Finland was a director’s dream, with unparalleled visuals”.

Pre-production took three months while the shoot took six days. Hanna Tuovio, executive producer at Grillifilms notes “the entire production group was in Rovaniemi for almost two weeks. The production group had nearly 70 people from eight different countries” and adds that “as far as the filming was concerned, Rovaniemi’s infrastructure worked really well”.

Sanna Tarssanen, CEO of House of Lapland notes that “War is by far the largest production that has filmed in Lapland, and the scene shot in Rovaniemi has the attention in the film’s marketing...India is an attractive market to Lapland, and such visibility can be immensely important”. Ahead of its release at the beginning of October, the film has already racked up sixty million views on YouTube.

As the capital of Finnish Lapland, Rovaniemi is a destination already popular with tourists. Tuula Rintala-Gardin, Director of International Affairs for the City of Rovaniemi notes that “Getting such a large production to film in Rovaniemi is a great reference for the region’s expertise and cooperation. Tourism from India is on the rise, and we believe that productions filmed here can only strengthen this growth”.

War received the national production incentive managed by Business Finland. The 25% cash rebate is applicable for feature films, documentaries, serial fiction and animation and covers costs including pre-production, production and post-production in Finland.