Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa has announced a film city of global standards in Bengaluru. In his budget for 2020-21 presented on Thursday, Mr. Yediyurappa said the film city would be established at a cost of ₹500 crore with private participation in Bengaluru.
However, he has not allocated funds to the project and it seemingly is going to be a “private-funded” facility. The government may consider giving land to the project.
Even as finer details of the announcement are awaited, Mysuru seems to have lost the race in getting a film city in its neighbourhood.
Confusion had surrounded the project with plans to shift it from Mysuru after H.D. Kumaraswamy, former Chief Minister, had announced the setting up of a film university in Ramanagaram. The reports had forced former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who had announced the project, to intervene and urge Mr. Kumaraswamy to keep the project in Mysuru since land needed for it had been handed over to the authorities.
Himmavu, near Mysuru, falling under Varuna constituency which is represented by Mr. Siddaramaiah for two terms and now by his son Yathindra, was identified for the project. But efforts to move it closer to Bengaluru, the hub of the Kannada film industry, continued after Mr. Siddaramaiah’s tenure ended. One of the reasons cited for moving the project to Ramanagaram was that the industry and people dependent on it were based in Bengaluru and it was convenient for them if the project was developed closer to the capital.
After the BJP government came to power, Deputy Chief Minister C.N. Ashwath Narayan had spoken about setting up the film city in Bengaluru, creating doubts about the project in Mysuru. The stakeholders here had launched an online campaign to keep Mysuru as the site for the project. But the Dy.CM succeeded in bringing the project to Bengaluru.
Mysore Travels’ Association founder president B.S. Prashanth, who had launched a online campaign for keeping the film city in Mysuru, said stakeholders would continue to bring pressure on the government to keep the project in Mysuru.
Memorandum submitted
Director-producer S.V. Rajendra Singh Babu had submitted a memorandum to Mr. Yediyurappa’s office sometime ago urging him to retain Mysuru as the location for the film city. Many from the industry had been in favour of Mysuru, he had claimed.
Mysuru has an 80-year-old history of film-making and it’s rare to find 250 shooting venues in a radius of around 25 km. Mysuru alone had 16 palaces. A Hollywood film was shot in Mysuru in 1946 and the director of the film had apparently described Mysuru as one of the best locations for outdoor shooting, Mr. Babu had stated in his letter.
The film-maker had also suggested that the government consider setting up the projects in Bengaluru and Mysuru for giving bigger advantage to the film industry.
