One short of a score, we are family and friends from almost all parts of the world descended upon the city of Nizams- Hyderabad. Ours is a brief two-day tour in a tight schedule and tighter budget. One day for paying a visit to Ramoji Film City and another day is for taking part in various local activities.
Since we are a healthy mix of children, youngsters and adults, we decide to make a good start with RFC (Ramoji Film City) - a world of technological brilliance and an enthralling gateway of experiencing shooting of films. On an August morning, we set out for it. The weather God is in favour of us. We bundle into a mini bus that we have hired to cover a long 30-km distance from our hotel to Ramoji Film City.
The bus snakes its way amidst the city’s honking traffic until it hits the highway. Except for the wild cacophony that we create playing Anatakshari ( a game of songs) at its amalgamated and amusing best, featuring English, Hindi, Bengali and Tamil songs, even whimsically translating them, the journey till we reach RFC is lackluster one in terms of the scenic landscape.
The transformation is dramatic as we alight from our bus at the entrance to the world of marvels and magic. Private vehicles are not allowed to go uphill to the main film city. However, RFC’s special buses play every few minutes from the main gate to the hotspot. Once up, visitors have the option of hopping onto one of the several colorful RFC buses that accord them a guided tour of the vast spread exotic gardens and monumental structures. Of course, for those who have sufficient time at their disposal, strolling in the surrounds and soaking in the ambience is a definite option.
On reaching uphill, we are held spellbound by what we see. London or Los Angeles, the Arizona army base or Agra’s pride The Taj Mahal (a great monument created by Mughal dynasty), it is all here at RFC, a magical sprawl spread across 200 areas. It does not take us long to sense that it is a place where reality merges with the illusory, where art, architecture and nature view with one another to create aesthetics that it is at once marvellous and technologically scintillating.
Eureka, a movie-themed area with glittering shows, Bollywood style dancing, acrobatics, western cowboy shows, Meena Bazaar with its shopping, is an architecture reproduction of a bygone era. While it is the centre of tourist attractions, Eureka is also the start and end point of the guided city tower where one queues up for the vintage style tour bus.
We snake our way across ornamental bridges to enter the Mauryan (a number of Indian emperors) magic and replicas of the glorious Mughall era.
We watched the process of movie-making, sound recording and post-production of film-making.
The film city’s outdoor sets include “national highways with Punjabi dhabas (roadside food stalls), studio floors, state-of-the-art technology labs, centres of digital film facilities, hospitality centres, and a replica of Kuchiguda railway station.
In the evening, we get back to our hotel with a heavy heart, mourning that the sweet day has passed very quickly.
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