Elated at the proposal to set up a Film City in Uttar Pradesh, members of the film fraternity said that it could transform Indian film industry as the majority of the workforce came from the state.
Interacting with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, art director Nitin Desai offered to set up a Film City akin to the one in Mumbai. “Since 80 per cent of technicians and workforce in Mumbai film industry are from UP, manpower availability will not be a problem,” he said.
Meanwhile, Sandeep Singh of Singapore-based Vistas Media offered to set up a film academy with an initial investment of 10 million dollars.
Chairman of Film Producers Association, Ashok Pandit, welcomed the proactive government action and said that one should look beyond Hindi films.
“After all Bhojpuri films are already made here,”’ he said.
Veteran actor Anupam Kher said that the proposed Film City would have global recognition and emphasised on training, asking people to evolve training logistics.
Film producer and director Satish Kaushik, who recently shot ‘Kagaz’ in UP, said that the state offered a great alternative to film professionals and aspirants.
“The vantage location of the Film City will serve a large geography and demography of the northern region,” he said.
Lyricist Manoj Muntashir hailed the state government for taking Hindi film industry to the Hindi-speaking belt.
“Local ethos and mosaic culture will be boosted if film institute and music academy are also built in UP,” he said.
Tamil film-maker R Saundarya said that animation, digital technology and other facilities were the need of the hour which had been proposed in the Film City of UP.
Well-known singers Udit Narayan, Kailash Kher and Anup Jalota praised the UP government and the chief minister for making such a huge decision in a short time.