Queenstown is about to hit the headlines in India after a team of leading television and print journalists arrived in the resort to cover this country's biggest Bollywood movie.

Lifestyle editor Aneesha Baig and cameraman Sanjay Mandaz from India's top-rated NDTV (New Delhi Television) station, Rahul Nanda, a senior journalist from India's Filmfare Magazine, and the assistant editor of The Times of India Nimisha Tiwari all arrived yesterday on the set of the $6.5 million movie I Hate Luv Stories on Coronet Peak.

Tourism New Zealand regional manager India and Southeast Asia Kiran Nambiar is hosting the media group, all of whom were raving about Queenstown's mind-boggling scenery yesterday.

Some 150 million viewers are expected to watch the movie during the next three years and Queenstown would be the centrepiece, unlike previous Bollywood movies where its scenery is from an unknown location, usually in a dream-style sequence, Mr Nambiar said.

"It's quite hard for us to get New Zealand media back home ... because this involves big (Indian) movie stars it's huge, it'll have that multiplier effect."

Tiwari said the leading lady Sonam Kapoor and leading actor Imran Khan were big rising stars in India and there was huge interest in their every move.

Readers of India's major national daily newspaper counted well into the millions and would want to know what the stars ate, what adventure sports they did and whether they did a bungy jump while in Queenstown, Tiwari said.

She would be writing an in-depth feature series on the set and Queenstown, which would also appear in the newspaper's online section.

NDTV reached about 40 million households a week and Baig said it was "the chance of a lifetime" to visit New Zealand.

The journalists were blown away by Queenstown's amazing scenery and activities on their first picture-perfect hot summer's day in the resort. "There isn't an inch of it that isn't beautiful – the airport, the mountains, even the airport's beautiful. It's absurd how beautiful it is," Baig said.

The media had already taken a skydive over Queenstown and would be doing a bungy jump, riding the Earnslaw and Shotover Jet and visiting Milford Sound, doing a Nomad Safaris Lord of the Rings tour and enjoying a Maori experience and luge ride at Skyline.

About 24,500 Indians visit New Zealand each year, of which 50 per cent are holiday visitors.

Mr Nambiar said Indian holidaymakers to New Zealand had risen by 20 per cent in the past five months.