ROHILAS IN INDIA 2014: 8 Ramoji Film City, Andhra Pradesh

February 13, 2014

Around 9:00 a.m., we left for day-long visit to Ramoji Film City, about 35 Kilometers (21 Miles) away from Hyderabad.

Ramoji Film City Sign

Spread over more than 1650 acres, Ramoji is the world's largest film complex, which opened in 1996. With its 500 set locations, 50 studio floors, post-production facilities and editing studios, it provides comprehensive, world class filmmaking facilities. Every year, a large number of films, TV dramas and commercials are produced here in English and several Indian languages.

After reaching there, the first order of business for us to buy our tickets. At Rs 800 (about $13) each, tickets are expensive for India. Still there were hundreds of people, who had come to spend a day at the dreamland of Ramoji.

 Area near the booking office.

Armed with our tickets and a map, we walked behind the booking office, to start our tour.

Ramoji Film City Map

The tour of Ramoji Film City is like going to a theme park complete with shopping facilities, food courts, and areas for entertainment of children as well as adults.

Vintage shuttle coaches move people around the various sets and studios, while a tour guide offers a narrative of the places on the way. Also there are areas for visitors to explore on their own.

A Shuttle Coach

Ramoji Film City has a butterfly park and more than 100 gardens - Umbrella Garden, Japanese Garden, Charisma Garden, Mughal Garden, Sanctuary Garden (with topiary sculptures of animals), and Sculpture Garden, to name a few.

  

Butterfly Park

                                                                     Umbrella Garden
 

Japanese Garden

                                          Charisma Garden

Mughal Garden

Sanctuary Garden

Sculpture Garden

And there are several other sculptures too throughout the Film City - traditional sculptures, modern sculptures, and movie-inspired sculptures. 

  

 A Traditional Sculpture (Radha & Krishna)

 A Modern Sculpture

 

Movie Inspired Sculpture of Mother India

 

Movie Inspired Sculpture of Charlie Chaplin

There are a variety of fountains, water-pools and gazebos too.

Fountain

Fountain

Fountain

 Waterpools

 

Gazebos

The sets include an airport terminal complete with Check-in Booths, and interior of an airplane.

Airport Terminal 

 

Airport Check-in Booths

Interior of an Airplane

 

Even there are replicas of the iconic Hollywood sign, and Western as well Indian residential and shopping areas.

 Hollywood Sign and Old American West Set

A Residential Street

Another Residential Street

 Shopping Area

Besides there is a police station (with jail), a train station, a temple, a mosque, a fort and a palace complete with palace grounds.

Police Station & Jail

Train Station

Temple

Mosque

Fort

Hawa Mahal Palace

 Hawa Mahal Palace Grounds

Fundostan is an area dedicate specially to children. It offers them video games, carousels and other activities.

 Fundostan

Fundostan Carousel

Also there are areas which people of all ages can enjoy. For example there is a large complex of

Rupalu Caves. It has statues and frescoes depicting some realistic and some fantastic themes.

Rupalu Caves 

Rupalu Caves

Rupalu Caves

And there is a long tunnel through which visitors go through in an open trolley bus. It has a variety of displays - foreign and Indian, real and mythical - around each corner.

Moscow, Russia 

Angkor Wat, Cambodia 

Arabian Nights

Eiffel Tower, Paris, France

Taj Mahal, Agra, India

And there is the Mahabharata Gallery, which has elaborate court sets with automated figures participating in important royal discussions.

 A scene from Mahabharata Gallery

In a pair of studios, using a volunteer couple from the audience, they showed us how some movie scenes are shot, and how some sounds are generated and recorded.

 Filming of a woman cart driver being chased by horsemen 

 Volunteers creating sounds for the scene above

After a pizza lunch at the food court, we enjoyed a song and dance show.

Song and Dance Show

By now, Kundan's leg pain had become unbearable. Therefore, we enlisted staff's help to be transported to our car for return trip to our hotel in Hyderabad.