 The
script is ready and you are eager to make a movie with
all those Hollywood style special effects. You are planning
to shoot the film in exotic locales like Japan and Switzerland.
But you want to finish the movie in a short span of
time in a single schedule. It is a tricky situation.
Going to far off places definitely is much tiresome
and consumes lot of time. Then suddenly a sparkling
idea strikes your mind and with a script in your hand,
you walk into the sprawling Ramoji Film City. Unbelievable!
You finish the entire film bang on time. The film is
ready to be released into the market with all those
special effects and dance sequences of foreign countries.
That's the speciality of Ramoji Film City. Located 45
km away from Hyderabad, Ramoji Film City is every
film unit's dream come true.
 The
studio floors, a fully-equipped prop shop, a set design
and construction division, state-of-the-art equipment,
experienced production staff, and hi-tech digital editing,
dubbing and sound-recording facility, along with luxury
hotels, make Ramoji Film City as one of the man made
splendours on earth. The unique selling point of the
Film City is its capacity to rebuild any place for a
shoot. You have a vast choice of flexible locations
where you can choreograph song sequences in any of the
gardens. You can also change the look of the fountain,
the layout of the street, the facades of the buildings
in the streets or the shape of the multi-dimensional
pond to create a totally different locale. Built by
Media baron Ramoji Rao, the film city offers a vast,
varied and fantastic canvas for films. A filmmaker can
recreate an English or a Japanese garden or create his
own floral pattern mid-song to suit the heroine's costume.
Besides, there is a nursery with tens of thousands of
flowering plants from all over the world to take care
of floral backdrops. All for a price, of course.
 There
are 40 studio floors of varying sizes, as small as 20
x 30 feet and as large as 135 x 210 feet, and most are
adaptable enough for filmmakers to create the settings
of their choice. In the workshops of the Film City,
over a thousand skilled carpenters, moulders and sculptors
help art directors create truly authentic and unique
sets. Using wood, fibreglass and plaster of paris, these
craftsmen have already created thousands of objets d'art
in styles ranging from ancient Greek to Renaissance
and ancient Indian to modern and abstract. The name
of prop supply division is 'Parade', which houses costumes,
jewellery, furniture and appliances. Parade's inventory
runs into hundreds of categories with an amazing variety
of objects, from flutes and fishing rods, Belgian crystal
and bullock carts to hammocks and horse saddles.
 The
furniture division, 'Harmony', has a pool of designers
and carpenters who conjure up traditional Indian or pseudo
Chippendale furniture, a Swiss chalet or a mahogany panelled
boardroom. Since the locations scattered over a vast area,
the Film City has conveniently provided over 250 make-up
rooms at various spots.
During production and post-production the Film City, which
employs large number of people, can support filmmakers
with its own experienced staff of spot boys, electricians,
carpenters and painters, even dancers and extras. The
filmmakers can also draw an army of editors, recordists,
musicians and sound technicians, film editors, and dubbing
artistes in the City to ensure that  post-production
runs smoothly. Besides raw stock and tapes, a complete
range of lights, a choice of film cameras, cranes, dollies,
booms and whatever else filmmakers need are available
on the studio floor and on outdoor locations. The Film
City claims to have the country's most advanced processing
system, high-quality wet and dry printers and a high-speed
inspection station that allows rapid optical sound track
checking. Designed by Acoustics Design Group, a well-known
name in the field, the Film City will provide a fully-integrated
digital environment for the entire audio post-production
process, from dialogue replacement to final mix down.
 The
Film City boasts of a five-star hotel, Sitara, which comes
with all amenities, restaurants, pool, gym and business
centre and conference halls. There is also a three-star
hotel, Tara, and for those who would rather opt out of
a hotel, there are dormitories well equipped to accommodate
even the largest of crews. |
