Ramoji Film City, The Dream Factory

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Compacted World

Buses taking off every five or ten minutes from the main gate of the City take the tourist on a guided tour of the vast spread of exotic gardens, outdoor sets, studio floors, state-of-the-art technology labs, centres of digital film facilities, hospitality centres, complexes storing props and period costumes, recreation joints, communication resources and a bewildering variety of equipment and gadgetry for the film-maker. Though these facilities are significant essentially for the film industry, yet the curious tourist will find in them an awe-inspiring spectacle.


What strikes the tourist first is the limitless spread of water-washed foliage of different climes and locales. While these gardens are by design in full bloom throughout the year and are a great visual extravaganza for the tourist, the film-maker saves the effort and expense of taking his equipment, artists and army of technicians to either Kashmir or Switzerland for shooting because that ambience is available literally off the shelf at the Film City. These gardens known as Shangri la are laid in a variety of patterns from formal French gardens to the wilds of Africa. More such marvels are in the pipeline, In the middle of these meandering gardens nestle majestic gazebos of Rajasthani architecture of the Ranas' time.

You have colourful fountains, rock formations, and zigzagging pathways flanked by lamps, which automatically come to life at dusk. Shangri la is very well serviced by a support system consisting of horticulturists, botanists, landscape artists, well-stocked nurseries constituting the agri-division of the gardens. The tens of thousands of country-specific plants in the nurseries help in re-creating the spring in England or a Japanese garden. Even as the tourist is left gaping at the paradise on earth, Shangri la sets the imagination of the filmmaker on fire about the kinds of spectacles he can conjure up magician like with the endless possibilities that the gardens offer. Believe it or not, you can see the world famous Chinar tree of Kashmir or be enchanted by the fall vegetation reminiscent of Vermont in America. Hordes of producers from Hollywood, Bollywood, and Tollywood descend on the Film City empty-handed and go back with canned prints. Every comfort of theirs is taken care of -- from fully-air-conditioned accommodation, conferencing facilities, entertainment to banking, travel-related services, secretarial assistance, and what have you.

The outdoor locations are products of great vision and a blend of landscapes and cityscapes ranging from the pastoral to the metropolitan, wild shrubbery to manicured lawns, rivulets and cataracts, singing fountains, churches, mosques and temples, an airport terminal, railway station, police outpost, shopping plazas, palace interiors, chateaus, rural complexes, urban dwellings, gateways, a 5 KM long winding highway inlaid into carpets of idyllic pasture. Carry your crew and equipment to shoot a dance and song number in the Shangri la gardens or a coronation in one of the period palaces or shoot a police chase through outdoor transport arteries. If the producer has something unique in mind, for example, a Russian dacha or American suburbia, Maya workshops spread over 3,00,000 Sq. Ft. and manned by 1,000 skilled and experienced artisans, will translate your thoughts into reality. It is a continuous process at the Film City to scout for new and unusually challenging locations for its own production and for the benefit of other film-makers.

Available to those film-makers are the support services of the Film City which provide information on the exotic locales available in India and also help international film outfits in customs formalities for faster release of production hardware. The outdoor sets are modular in concept and construction with the promise of limitless versatility. The architecture of buildings and other structures can easily be altered according to the filmmaker's needs. The technical infrastructures and professional expertise of the Maya workshops are an answer to the requirements of both small and mega-budget films.

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