Within two days of the announcement on setting up a Film City in Uttar Pradesh, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath unveiled an ambitious plan to set up a Dedicated Infotainment (Film City) Zone and rolled out an open offer to the film fraternity to shoot their films in the proposed zone.
Yogi also announced that 1,000 acres of land had been identified in Gautam Buddha Nagar (Noida) by Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) where the Infotainment Zone would be set up with world-class civil, public and technological facilities.
The film personalities immediately lapped up the government’s prompt action and said it was a “right step at the right time”.
They spoke with the chief minister, who chaired a meeting with them on the film industry in UP.
Yogi said that the proposed site was just an hour away from New Delhi and close to the upcoming Jewar international airport.
He also said that due to its proximity to the Taj City Agra and Lord Krishna’s birthplace Mathura, the proposed zone had facilities of transport and movement.
The chief minister said that UP was surrounded by seven states and provided a mosaic of culture, dialects and religious, Vedic and mythological historicity unparalleled to any other state. He said the ethos and traditions amplified the vast natural and spiritual canvas of UP.
Yogi said that efforts would be to make it the best Dedicated Infotainment Zone of the country.
“We are aware of the present trend of OTT and media-streaming platforms. Hence a high capacity, world class data centre along with pre-production and post-production infrastructure, processing labs, VFX and digital technology would be provided in the zone.
“We have locations, cultural diversity, man power and with the setting up of a state-of-the-art Film City with all facilities, UP would become a sought destination in this field,’’ the chief minister said.
Yogi said that all industrial policies would be applicable for takers and a single window mechanism would be used to facilitate people wanting to come to UP to set up a studio.
“The state government’s Film Policy-2018 already has some provisions. Some proposals have come from the film fraternity and they will be considered by the government,” he said.
The film personalities, including Vijayendra Prasad, Ashok Pandit (director), Kailash Kher (singer), Manoj Joshi, (producer-director), Shri Nitin Desai (producer-director), Vinod Bachchan, (producer-director), Pragya Kumar, Udit Narayan and Anup Jalota (singers) were present at the meeting.
Besides, Saundarya Rajnikant, Anupam Kher, Atul Agnihotri, Paresh Rawal (Chairman of Pune Film Institute), Manoj Muntashir (lyricist) and Satish Kaushik interacted with the chief minister on virtual platforms.