Telangana Government is contemplating to invite a Hollywood studio to set up its film making facility here as part of its plans to make Hyderabad a hub for Indian cinema industry and not just Telugu film production.
The proposal is part of its larger plans to encourage the leisure and entertainment industry in a big way to boost social infrastructure, a pre-requisite for attracting investments, particularly in the information technology sector. The government is pinning its hopes on the fact that Hyderabad is emerging as one the major centres for gaming and animation industry in the world in the recent years.
Against the general perception that Telangana Government is at loggerheads with the cinema industry dominated by Seemandhra people, particularly against the backdrop of its drive against illegal constructions, including the one belonging to a top Tollywood personality, the Government is planning to make Hyderabad a hub for Indian cinema industry and not just Telugu film activity. Plans to rope in a Hollywood firm to develop a facility in addition to the likes of Ramoji Film City, Annapurna Studios, Rama Naidu Studios, Padmalaya Studios and others are part of that larger goal, highly placed sources in the government said.
“No settled industry will fly away from Hyderabad, including Telugu cinema, in spite of the bifurcation blues. A key personality belonging to a reputed film-production house told who’s who in the government recently that they will take land, if offered by AP Government and set up a new facility as they did in case of Visakhapatnam but they can’t even think of shifting the base,” the sources said.
The government will encourage leaders of the cinema industry here to set up facilities for imparting training in technical fields, the sources said and pointed out that services of sound engineers are still taken from Chennai even decades after Telugu industry shifting here.
“We only request the industry to provide opportunities to local (Telangana) people in unskilled areas”, the sources noted.
“Lack of social infrastructure such as good educational institutions, good hospitals, good hospitality facilities and lack of avenues for leisure and entertainment have failed to attract even a dozen industries from Chennai to nearest parts of combined Andhra Pradesh in the recent past,” a senior government official said.
Courtesy: The Hindu