Ramoji Film City
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| Ramoji Film City | |
|---|---|
| Type | Privately held company |
| Founded | 1996 |
| Headquarters | Hyderabad, India Indian NH9 Highway, near Hayathnagar |
| Key people | Ramoji Rao, Founder, Ramoji Group |
| Industry | Motion pictures |
| Owner | Ramoji Rao |
| Parent | Ramoji Group |
| Website | www.ramojifilmcity.com |
Ramoji Film City (RFC) is the world’s largest integrated film studio complex at over 2,000 acres (8.1 km²) of land [1]. It is also a popular tourism and recreation centre, containing both natural and artificial attractions. It is situated near Hayathnagar on Hyderabad - Vijayawada, NH9 highway, about 25 km from Hyderabad. [2]
[edit] History
Film producer Ramoji Rao, head of the Ramoji Group, opened the facility 1996. The creation of the Ramoji Film City was an outcome of the Group's association with Indian cinema through Usha Kiron Movies, its dedicated film production house, which has produced over 80 films in several languages such as Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Marathi and Bangla [3]. Located at the entrance of the film city are the 3-star hotel, Tara and a 5-star hotel, Sitara for the film production units as well as for tourists. Once inside, there is Hawa Mahal, based along the lines of the Golconda Fort, which is on a hilltop from where one can have a bird’s eye view of the whole studios.
A Japanese garden, the ETV planet (a multi-purpose editing suit), a pool, artificial waterfalls, breathtakingly accurate airport terminal, hospital set, railway station, churches, mosques and temples, shopping plazas, palace interiors, chateaus, rural complexes, urban dwellings, and a winding highway are some other places for tourists to visit. For shopping enthusiasts, there are nice handicrafts, pottery and other decorative articles for purchase.
The vintage Film City coaches will take the visitors on a journey around the studios. Each of these well-conducted tours will let you have a tètè-è-tètè with the stunning locales. The visitors are shown around the various sets where blockbusters have been filmed or the numerous gardens where the Indian song sequences were choreographed. There is Parade, a prop-shop, where you costumes of actors as shown in a film can be ordered. One can find a nursery, Shangrila, where the visitors can take back exotic plants back home. There are several settings in the studios which lead the visitors from streets of the Mauryan Empire or the Mughal Empire or even the American Wild Wild West. There's also the famous Hollywood sign displayed on the hills at the studios.
If tired and hungry, there's enough variety of food on the platter. Alampana, Chanakya, Gunsmoke and Ganga Jamuna are the restaurants that are available to pamper the taste buds.
For the fitness-conscious lot, there is Samson & Delilah for you, arguably one of Asia’s best-equipped health clubs that has a gymnasium with sophisticated equipment and facilities such as jacuzzis, sauna, steam bath, herbal massage. The club house features recreational facilities like table tennis, billiards, badminton, tennis and other facilities for aerobics or yoga.
The Film City even has honeymoon packages for the newly married couples who are on the lookout for a getaway destination. It caters to the corporate world by offering banquet halls.
Magadha, Meena Bazaar, Frontierland or Black Cat Warehouse are a few avenues from where the visitors can carry home souvenirs of their visit.
[edit] How to reach?
Hyderabad is the capital city of Andhra Pradesh and is well connected to all major cities in India. You can reach Hyderabad by air as it has an air transport network connecting domestic and international flights to and from major cities. The Indian Railways operate trains to many of the major cities and towns from the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad.
The twin cities are connected albeit recently through roadways to major cities and destinations such as Bangalore, Tirupathi, Chennai, Pune and Mumbai. A lot of the roads to these cities are undergoing major up-gradation (for example: between Hyderabad and Bangalore) where by 2 lane roads are being converted into 4 lane roads. Ramoji Flim City
[edit] References
- ^ Ramoji Film City sets record. The Hindu. Retrieved on 2007-08-03.
- ^ {{cite web|url=http://www.ramojifilmcity.com/tourist/abtrfc_guinessrecord.html|title= Guinness World Records certifies Ramoji Film City as the World's largest Film Studio Complex|publisher=Ramoji Film City|accessdate=2008-04-08
- ^ About Ramoji Film City.
[edit] Studio features
One of the many film sets at the studiosRamoji Film City offers pre-production, production, and post-production resources. It offers over 500 set locations. There are many gardens, authentic sets, about 50 studio floors, a digital film facility, the support systems, outdoor locations, high-tech laboratories, etc. The Film City's infrastructure includes custom-designed locations & mock-ups, set construction, properties & costumes, shooting stages, cameras and equipment, audio post-production, digital-post-production/SFX as well as film processing.
Twenty international films and forty Indian films can be produced simultaneously in the complex. It has attracted not only filmmakers from the country, but also producers from Hollywood.
[edit] Tourism
Every year, the studios attracts over a million tourists visit the complex creating revenues in billions of rupees (INR) <ref>{{cite web|url=http://travel.nytimes.com/2006/12/31/travel/31journeys.html|title=On the Back Lot at the Other Bollywood|}}</li></ol></ref>
A special Coach which takes visitors around the studios
