As my first working week in Hyderabad is coming to an end, I was hoping I could explore some places around the city. One of my friend kindly offered to take me to one of the city’s modern attraction Ramoji film city. Built in 1996, it intends to offer an immersive experience in filmmaking. The film city is popularly known for filming an Indian cult classic movie called “Baahubali”.
I’ve traveled to many theme parks in the United States such as Disneyland and Universal Studios. They never fail to amuse me and always brought their “A” game when it came to entertain people for a day. I had similar expectations, I knew the film city would be a close adoption of such theme parks but with an Indian twist to it. First of all, this place was way out of the city almost 30 miles (40 km) towards the southeast end of Hyderabad. It was massive, developed over 1600 acres of land, and attracts over 1.5 million visitors per year according to Wikipedia.
My first impression was that it’s an organized chaos, just like everything else in India. The actual film city is about 8 km from the film city’s entrance. You will have to hop on a bus to ride the 8 km distance to reach the actual film city. All the tours are planned in such a way that, taking a giant circle around the film city will cover all attractions. You hop on a bus and it will drop you at a designated dropping point and you visit all the attractions in that particular area which could vary from a filmmaking class to theme Park style attractions. They did have some sets which were actively being used in some of the productions handled by the studios associated with them.
The landscape itself is reminiscent of the area around Hyderabad, full of peaks and valleys covered with boulders the size of the 12-story building. It’s a pleasant green space if you want to escape bustling city life for a day. Though the weather and the local conditions might play devil’s advocate on your trip, so plan ahead.
One of the most popular attractions was the set of the movie Baahubali. There were many movie props spread across a piece of land which offered the visitors fun time interacting with them. I did take some pictures, inacting some of the scenes I had remembered from the movie.
My favorite attraction was the butterfly garden and the bird park. It was home for a number of native and wild butterflies and birds. Though I felt sad about them being caged up for our amusement, I was also glad that the local terrain and the weather would not be suitable for these exotic birds and insects to survive.
Lunch was a whole different affair. The film city does claim to have a few sit-down restaurants which caters to fine dining experiences, but we settled for a place where everybody seems to be keen on having lunch. We had a choice of two Biriyanis, vegetarian and a non-vegetarian. The dining area looked like a cafeteria hall of a high school.
Overall, Ramoji film city was an interesting experience at best. It is a good way to spend a day outside the city, enjoying some of the attractions, food, and activities themed around the art of filmmaking.
I do want to emphasize the fact that you better be prepared to walk 6-8 miles ( 10-13 Kms ) and come prepared to counter the nature’s elements such as heat and rain.
Roy D