Next stop for Bollywood - Botswana?

KASANE - If Indian Vice President Hamid Ansari has his way, Indian filmmakers will have another exotic film destination - Botswana.

Enraptured by the beautiful and wild environs of the Chobe National Park, Ansari told his host, Botswana Vice President Momfati Merafhe, Sunday night that he will certainly lobby for the southern African country with his domestic film industry.

India boasts the largest film production in the world, which specialises in the most beautiful of locations.

They should certainly take to this most exotic of locations. To the extent that I can carry this message, I will do so,” he said.

Ansari arrived in Botswana Jan 9 for a three day visit - the last leg of his tri-nation African trip. After bilateral talks and signing two deals Saturday, the Indian delegation flew to Kasane in north-eastern Botswana, for an overnight visit to the Chobe National Park.

The vice president and his wife stayed at the Clinton suite at Mowana safari lodge, which not surprisingly was the accommodation for then US President Bill Clinton during his 1998 trip to Botswana.

Three large boats were chartered by the Botswana government for a three-hour afternoon journey through the wide Chobe river, whose one bank has Botswana and the other Namibia.

A group of hippos grazed gently on the river bank while another group gazed at the Indian entourage with their eyes only above the water.

Then, Ansari saw several large groups of African elephants, the matriarch and her brood, as they frolicked in the muddy banks.

Ansari was seen capturing the moment on his mobile phone.

We thought that the Garden of Eden was a mythological concept. But, it exists and it is right here, he said.

Early Monday morning, Ansari went for a drive into the park and encountered two lionesses crossing the dirt road.

Immediately, most of the jeeps carrying the Indian delegation zeroed in, but the lions disappeared after spotting the guns brandished by the Botswana defence personnel.

Ansari returned to Gaborene Monday afternoon and will call on the Botswana President Seretse Khama Ian Khama. He will also visit the headquarters of Diamond Trading Company Botswana and then address the Indian community in the evening.

The Indian delegation will board the special aircraft for the nine-hour journey home to Delhi at about 9.30 p.m.