Shanghai's star turn as Hollywood of the East

Independent filmmaker Richard Trombly coaches actresses Emily Feist (middle) and Emily Wallace-Kalouch (left) during the making of his latest production, Analysis.Photo provided to China Daily

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Lazetich, who is in his early 40s, was born in Mostar, a city in southern Bosnia-Herzegovina. He got hooked on showbiz as a cast member of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers World Live Tour in 1995.

"I mostly do TV shows and World War II films," he says. "Sometimes months can go by while I'm waiting and waiting for the phone to ring."

He earns between 400 yuan ($65) to 3,000 yuan a day, depending on whether the role is silent or scripted and is about to work on an indie movie that will be filmed in Shanghai and Beijing. He hopes this will be his big break.

Shanghai has carved a role for itself as a magnet for big-budget Hollywood flicks in recent years from Mission Impossible III (2006) to Skyfall (2012), Looper (2012) and Spike Jonze's Her (2013), which featured several futuristic-looking backdrops in Pudong among other shots.

The city's under-construction "Dream Center" will include the film production facilities of Oriental DreamWorks. One of the studio's most high-profile animations, Kung Fu Panda 3, is due out next year. One-third of the animation work is set to be done in Shanghai.

The city is also set to open its much-anticipated Disneyland at the end of 2015.

"Shanghai, in my opinion, is the new Hong Kong," says Austria-born actress Alexia "Lexi" Kalteis.

Like Lazetich, Kalteis has been living and working in China for about a decade. She studied Chinese and acting at the Shanghai Theater Academy and now serves as co-chairperson of the city's East-West Theater.

Among her film credits are stints in the Jet Li flick Fearless and The Painted Veil starring Edward Norton (both 2006). She also teaches drama at a local primary school.

"So many movies are going to be shot here. The rate has already shot up so much since 2004. There wasn't much work for struggling actors back then, but the competition is increasing like crazy now," she says.