Why Siddaramaiah and HD Kumaraswamy are divided over Karnataka's new film city
A fresh argument has broken out between Karnataka's former chief minister Siddaramaiah and its incumbent one, HD Kumaraswamy. The bone of contention this time is the location of the state's new film city.
The government wants to build the film city on same lines of Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad. While Siddaramaiah wants the project to be set up in Mysore, Kumaraswamy wants it to be set up in Ramanagara district.
Siddaramaiah hails from Mysore and Kumaraswamy has been an MLA from the Ramanagara seat for many years now. Both want the project, which is likely to attract a lot of tourism, in their respective bastions.
Mysore is a historic city of Karnataka, which was ruled by the Wadiyars for centuries. The iconic Mysore palace still stands tall and has been the background against which many movies and famous songs have been shot.
What else does Mysore offer one may ask?
Apart from the Mysore palace, the district has several other small unexplored palaces. The KRS dam is not too far from Mysore. The district is also located just at the foothills of forests and thus offers a picturesque landscape. Many Kannada stars usually head to Mysore to shoot movies.
Ramanagara, too, has to its credit a link to the world of cinema with many movies being shot in the district.
The sequences in the legendary movie Sholay with Gabbar Singh that show the villain laugh and shout against huge boulders mouthing iconic dialogues were shot in Ramanagara or Ramgarh.
Ramanagara shot to fame after Sholay became a phenomenal hit and tourism started flowing into the district because people poured in just to see where the movie was shot.
Kumarswamy thinks there is a potential that could be harnessed and for that a full-fledged film city should come up in the area.
Ramanagara borders Bangalore and logistically it’s more viable than Mysore to be home to a film city. Ramanagara is actually just an hour-and-a-half distance from Bangalore city centre.
Also, Ramanagara is not as developed as Mysore. The project will help the overall development of the district. Mysore is a tier 2 city with good infrastructure and employment opportunities. Youths in Ramanagara, on the other hand, depend on agriculture and the unorganised sector for livelihood.
A film city there would help develop the district and take some burden off the growing population from Bangalore.
The Kannada film industry churns out around 150 films every year and 95 per cent of them are shot in Karnataka. The annual turnover of the Kannada film chamber is around Rs 400 crore.
Will Ramanagara be able to handle the burden of expectations?
Many feel the district’s infrastructure is not up to the mark for big stars to come and stay. Even the closest airport is a few hours away in Bangalore. Mysore, on its part, has a completely operational airport ready to receive the film fraternity.
The Kannada film industry is divided down the middle when it comes to choosing one of the two.
Some have suggested that that both places should have a film city each.
For Kannada actors the question is not which city needs the film city but which one can actually best host new film projects.
It will be interesting to see how the script unfolds..