The group was invited and hosted by Public Diplomacy Division of MEA in connection with the Netpac film festival. ( At Fancy Street, Ramoji Film City)Ramoji Film City, an hour’s drive from Hyderabad, is a total package. Vast (it sprawls over 1666 acres) and monumental, extravagant and flamboyant, it appears to be, at first a collection of sets for cinema. In the words of its founder, Ramoji Rao, “it is a gateway, a one-stop shop for directors, providing every single item they may ever need… All you have to do is walk in with a script and walk out with a canned film.” And every in-betweens can be found right here.
The world’s largest studio, according to the Guinness World Records, there’s not a service Ramoji Film City does not provide: production paraphernalia, audio and video post-production (the audio lab is particularly remarkable, with its data-base of sound effects and its networked sound facility), film lab, high-end technology, state-of-the-art cameras, set design, costumes, props and, above all, locations. There’s enough infrastructure here to host 200 productions a year and an unlimited number of TV programmes. Ramoji Rao, owner of Eenadu TV and its twelve channels, says his offerings are far cheaper and more productive than any in Mumbai, and there’s scope for growth.
