BENGALURU: The 40-year-old saga of the Film City ‘plot’, which has seen many twists and turns, may see a happy ending. The BS Yediyurappa government has finally decided to set up the Film City on the outskirts of Bengaluru. Now, the government has also dropped the proposal to set up the facility at the Devika Rani Roerich Estate, a massive lung space off Kanakapura Road. Earlier, the previous regime proposed to build it in Ramanagara or Mysuru.
Just a month after he took oath, Yediyurappa proposed to build the facility at Tataguni Estate, also known as Roerich and Devika Rani Roerich Estate. This was widely opposed by many, including environmentalists, who pointed out this could take a toll on the rich biodiversity in the area. On Wednesday, Deputy Chief Minister Dr Ashwath Narayan told reporters that the Film City will come in the outskirts of Bengaluru. “It’s a long-pending demand and we have identified land for it. We want to build a world class facility in terms of technology and modern infrastructure.
We have a Film City in Noida, Hyderabad, Gurgaon and other places. We will study these places and come up with better ideas. Bengaluru has become a hub for animation — movies such as The Lion King and Avatar were made here,’’ he said, adding that the tourism angle is also on their minds.
It was a dream of former chief minister Siddaramaiah to set up the Film City in Mysuru, his hometown. In fact, he even went ahead and identified 100 acres of land at Himmavu village, which falls under his old constituency of Varuna, now represented by his son Dr Yathindra.
However, this plan changed a year later when HD Kumaraswamy took oath as CM, and announced that the facility will come up in Ramanagara - his constituency. In the mid-1980s, then-CM Ramakrishna Hegde announced that he would set it up at Hessaraghatta. Then in 2004, during S M Krishna’s tenure, the same project was brought up once again, but saw no progress.
The DyCM, however, said they have said dropped the plan to set up the Film City at Devika Rani Roerich Estate, which is a colonial-style structure that was home to the first lady of Indian cinema Devika Rani, and her husband, Russian artist Svetoslav Roerich. Now, the government wants to convert the estate into an arts and craft ‘village’. “These ideas will take shape in the days to come,” he said.