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'Udayananu Tharam' is a famous Malayalam movie (released in 2005) that talks about—and mocks—what happens behind the scenes in the film industry. Around that time, one interesting detail also came out: the entire movie was made in Ramoji Film City. People no longer need to search for natural or suitable locations for a movie. One can do everything within the comfort of a film city.
Built by Ramoji Rao, this film city spans over 2,000 acres and is probably the largest integrated film city in the world. More than 2,500 films have been shot here. Some of the famous ones include Bahubali (both 2015 and 2017), Chandramukhi, Enthiran(Robot), Krrish 3 (2013), Kick (2014) etc. The place has sets for airports, railway stations, hospitals, foreign cities, palaces, villages, jails, streets, houses, and more. The film city also welcomes tourists and showcases various aspects of movie-making. In case you want to stay inside the complex, there are multiple hotels like Sitara, Tara, etc. If you're looking for a destination wedding venue or want to host corporate events, Ramoji is a good choice.
The film city is located far from the main city. From our location at Lakdikapul, it’s more than 35 km away. Fortunately, it's close to the Outer Ring Road, which offers easy connectivity back to the Bangalore highway. Since coming back to city areas would cost a lot of time, we planned the Film City visit for the last day and headed straight to Bangalore from there. We had an early breakfast, checked out from the hotel, and jumped into the car to reach the city. Since it was Monday morning, there was a lot of traffic on the way. Eventually, we got onto NH-65 (Pune–Machilipatnam), but that didn’t ease the traffic. After a while, we crossed the ORR junction on NH-65. From there, the film city is quite close. There’s ample parking space at Ramoji. Since we didn’t know when we’d get another break, feeding Niha became a priority.
There was one issue at the booking counter. Ramoji doesn’t permit cameras with lenses over 55mm. I didn’t have an 18–55mm lens suitable for my camera, so I had to go back and leave the camera in the car. Everything is well organized here—after booking, we could directly join the queue to board a bus to the main film city. The bus was nicely decorated and dropped us at first stop after a while.
Ramoji Film City
It's good to allocate two days to view film city. However if you have only one day, then you need to pick and choose what you want to see and to skip. As one Quora post suggested, it's better to try filmy dunia, space ride, moving making, wild west etc. at the beginning and then go for studio tour. This again depends on people to people - what I liked might be different from what you like; so make a plan which choose your interests.
I recall reading that there's an opening ceremony worth watching at film city. Unfortunately, by the time we reached inside, it was a bit late, and the ceremony had likely ended. We took a look around and waited at the first drop point. Buses for the Studio Tour came and went quickly, clearing the queue in front of us. Eventually, we got onto one and officially began our Ramoji Film City tour. Since I'm writing this article months after the actual trip, I've forgotten the exact sequence of events, so the order described below may not be entirely accurate. After boarding the bus, the guide began introducing Ramoji Film City and its history. As we moved along, she pointed out various landmarks and mentioned names of movies/scenes were shot in each location.
Many houses we saw were just facades — only the fronts were built. But on movies, they look like complete houses or streets. After viewing several such sets, the bus dropped us off at the Bhagavatham set. Here, you can walk through Pandavas' Indraprastha and, in the next room, the Kauravas' Hastinapur. If I recall correctly, there were a few more sets, all separated by single walls. A short walk ahead took us to a railway station set with couple of bogies of a train (not real railway bogies, but something they made there). It felt like, within just 1–2 square kilometers, you could shoot an entire movie. After exiting the railway station, we arrived at the next bus stop, where another bus would take us to the next location.
The tour ticket also includes access to three complimentary adventure activities. One of the buses stopped at the adventure zone. From there, a different bus takes you further to the actual spot, which is a bit farther away. Unfortunately, I was seated at the back of the bus and couldn't hear what the driver announced. A few people in front got off, but the rest of us remained. I realized it was the stop for the adventure section only after the bus started moving again. In hindsight, it was probably for the best—we had Divya with little Niha and my mother, who is in her early seventies. They likely wouldn’t have participated, and getting off would have cost us valuable time and other experiences.
We moved on, and the next stop was likely the Bahubali set. On the way, we passed an area where filming was in progress. One tourist tried to take pictures, but our guide quickly asked him not to, as it's against policy. The bus dropped us in front of Mahishmati's gates, and we entered inside the legendary fort. This is a famous location, and many visitors were busy clicking photos. However, it looked a bit neglected—the paint was peeling, and there were cracks in many places. Perhaps the idea is to keep it open to tourists until it can no longer be maintained, and then it will be replaced with a new set. Although it appeared beautiful in the movie, I didn’t find the set particularly impressive and moved quickly toward the exit. By the way, there were couple of restorants nearby which sold Devasena dosas and Bahubali biriyanis!!!
There was a souvenir shop just before the exit, where we picked up couple of items. For those concerned about food and water, Ramoji Film City is well-equipped. Near the Bhagavatham set and again at the Mahishmati set, there were food stalls and full-fledged restaurants.
From there, another bus took us to the European Street set. The buildings resembled the front facades of European towns, much like in movies. We walked through the area and reached (if I remember correctly) hospital and airport sets. Many buildings serve multiple purposes — for example, one side might be the hero’s house, another the villain’s, and yet another side might represent a courthouse. So, one building could function as four different sets. We explored the airport area for a while before heading to the gardens.
When the bus stopped, we got off at what seemed to be one of the highest points in the park, offering good view of the surroundings. Note that, not all part of film city is open to visitors; some areas are reserved for filming or closed during active shoots. We walked downhill toward the first garden, stopping for some time at a restorant on right side. Food took some time to arrive which also helped us to rest for some time.
Further down were more gardens. My favorite among them was the Japanese Garden — it was beautifully designed with traditional Japanese architecture and flowing water channels. We walked around there for a while, even walking a little through the water. I would have liked to spend more time, but it was already afternoon. We quickly moved towards bus stop and boarded one for next location — I can't recall exactly where it dropped us, but it featured several more gardens, including a small bonsai garden.
Next, we visited the movie making attraction, where they demonstrated how movies are made. Presenters also picked up three ladies from audience and made small video as well. This was followed by space ride. Both experiences were excellent, and I highly recommend them. After exiting from space ride somewhere down we saw the building where wild west show was going on. Unfortunately by the time we arrived, only five minutes remained, and it was the final show of the day. We missed it, but judging by the laughter and excitement of the audience, it seemed enjoyable.
Eventually, it was time to wrap up. Our memorable trip come to an end. Niha probably saw everything without understanding much; I'm sure when she grow older and looks at these photos, she might insists on seeing all one more time. By 5:30 PM, our return bus arrived to take us back to the parking area where we had left our car.
During the ride back, I went through everything we had seen. In a way, I gained better understanding of how sets are used in filmmaking; but it also removed a bit of magic. Won't I think about these sets and when I watch movies next time? Would it affect how genuine the scenes feel to me? I remembered an old roommate of mine - Rakesh - who was a huge Tony Jaa fan. He introduced me to movies like 'Ong-Bak' and 'Tom-Yum-Goong', famous for their flying knee strikes and stunt choreography. Rakesh admired Tony Jaa’s knee strikes and often explained his knee movements during action scenes. He also loved Jackie Chan, whose movies typically end with behind the scenes clips showing how the stunts were performed. Watching those behind the scenes clips made me appreciate the effort but felt like all these are not real. We all know that much of what we see is staged (many dangerous stunts are done by doubles) but still seeing how its done suddenly brought a kind of disappointment. From now on, I’ll probably watch movies with a different perspective.
Back to Bangalore
We left Film City by evening and soon got onto the ORR. It's a nice road to drive on—aside from some repair work happening here and there, there were no blocks on this fully elevated stretch. It took a while to reach the cloverleaf junction where the ORR intersects with NH44. The entire scenario changed once we entered NH44—lots of repairs, heavy traffic, and delays. It took some time to get through all the jams and finally reach lighter traffic. Unlike the stretch of NH44 from Bangalore to Salem and beyond, this segment is narrower and darker.
The long walks inside Film City had made everyone tired and eventually hungry. Finally, we found a place to have dinner, and surprisingly, the food was much better than I expected. Still, we had a long way to go to reach Bangalore. I almost stopped every half hour to have coffee. I think I’ve never had this much coffee and tea in a single day or night in my entire life. At some places, I even had two cups. It was also a bit cold outside. In some places, people were burning things to keep themselves warm. I stopped near one such spot where something was being burned. There was a tea stall nearby, and a lady was watching milk boil on the stove.
A large lorry had also stopped behind our car; compared to its size, our car looked like a child standing in front of an elephant. The truck driver got down and ordered coffee too. On the other side, the fire was still burning whatever people had thrown into it, spreading warmth. I walked back and forth, watching the flames, the truck parked just behind our car, the lorries passing by on the road, the moonlight, and the dark, tall trees lining the other side.
It took a while for the coffee to be ready. Meanwhile, I thought about all the pit stops I had made today. Some places were fully lit but mostly empty. Others had several trucks parked nearby with just a few people around. At some stops, I was the only customer the entire time. Finally, the coffee came—and it was indeed good.
I kept walking for a bit. The truck driver finally woke his trailer from a short sleep and got it moving again. Bangalore was still a distance away, but not too far. We started moving once more.
Sajeev
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