The Hindu : National : Eastern India to get its first film city

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National

Eastern India to get its first film city

Ananya Dutta

Purple Movie Town designed by award-winning art director Nitish Roy
Flexibly designed sets allow for multiple uses, including accommodating VIPs

KOLKATA: While there have been several announcements for developing film cities on sprawling campuses across West Bengal, the first film city in eastern India is expected to throw open, on the outskirts of Kolkata, its doors to filmmakers this winter itself.

Purple Movie Town is built on a modest 5.5 acres of land as compared to the extensive Ramoji Rao film city, its inspiration, but will accommodate four state-of-the-art studios and ready-to-shoot sets, of an airport, railway station, hospital, college, temple, courthouse and several other locations staple to most films.

“It is not necessary to have a vast stretch of land for a film city. We have been able to design it within a very compact space by doing away with certain aspects that may be redundant,” said Pritimoy Chakraborty, Chairman of Finesse group, the promoters of the project.

The sets have been designed by three-time National Award-winning art director Nitish Roy, who also designed the Ramoji Rao film city.

Accommodating so many locations into a relatively small area was achieved by certain sets doubling up for others. So, while one set may be a college by day and a hospital by night, the courtroom can be converted into a police station as well as a jail.

“One of the things we kept in mind was that after a few films have been shot on one of the locations, it may become recognisable. So, we have incorporated flexibility into their designs. By reorganising some of the peripherals on each of these sets, the look of the set can be changed,” Mr. Chakraborty added.

The complex includes 55 rooms that can be used for accommodation and four luxurious flats that can be used to host VIP guests or stars who might prefer to stay on location.

Mr. Chakraborty claimed that Purple Movie Town is a half-hour drive from Tollygunge, the epicentre of the Bengali film industry. One of the four studios will be ready for operations in November this year while the rest of the complex is preparing itself for an April 2011 launch.

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