Tollywood Tourism coming, Ahoy!

Hyderabad: Film buffs in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh will soon have an opportunity to a have a glimpse of their favorite hero/heroine at their shooting spots and also the high-tech film studios also in the city.

The Telangana government has come out with a new tourism promotional programme calling it as ‘Tollywood Tourism’ in the state. Under the new programme, tourists will be brought to film studious, maintained by private managements in the city, and facilitate them to watch film shooting on the spot and also interact with their favourite hero or heroine during the visit.

The special tourism promotional programme, aiming to ‘encash’ increasing craze among the people on films, will be taken up by the Tourism department in coordination with the Telugu Producers Council and managements of the studios, State Secretary (Tourism) B Venkatesham told The Hans India.

Talks were already held with the representatives of the Producers Council, who agreed to allow the visitors to watch the shooting in the studios, the official said and added that the programme will take off once the studio managements are contacted.

Ramoji Film city, Ramanaidu Studios, Annapurna and Padmalaya Studios and LV Prasad Film Institute and some film re-recording and editing centres will be included in the list of Tollywood Tourism programme.

The inclusion of residences of top stars like Mahesh Babu, Jr NTR, Nagarjuna, Venkatesh and other popular stars in the list of visiting is also under consideration. Tourists will be provided opportunity to meet film stars at their homes with the consent of the actors.

The official said most of the domestic tourists within the state and from Andhra Pradesh coming to the city would love to visit the studios and meet their favourite actors but at present there is scope for them to do so.

The Tourism department will fulfill their wish by arranging studio tour programme which will help to increase tourism potential in the state capital, Venkatesham said. Venkatesham said the package for the programme will be finalized shortly. A portion of the fee collected from the visitors would be utilized for the welfare of poor film artists who are in dire need of help, he added.

This proposal has also gone well with the film industry. Telangana Film Chamber of Commerce general secretary Murali Mohan said, "It’s a wise decision, because tourists are always curious about stars and film shooting destinations as many of the tourists are also movie buffs.

For instance, when we go to the US, we are tempted to visit Hollywood studios, including Disney Land. And it’s same with Telugu film viewers, who will be eager to check out how a film is being made, if they visit Hyderabad and surrounding districts in the TS.”

There are wonderful locations in Khammam and Adilabad, which can be promoted and exploited by tourists as well as filmmakers, so its win-win situation. Any step towards developing and promoting Telangana cinema, we welcome it with open arms, he said.

Films and tourism go hand-in-hand and TRS government tourism policy rightly, connects both these industries which can help each other in the long run. It’s a good decision because Telangana has numerous untapped virgin locales which can become popular overnight.

No State in India, has so many historical monuments, forts, forests, waterfalls and archeological spots, so a film will popularise a location and then government can generate revenue from it by adding it to tourists plan.

For instance, a hit film like Balaraju Katha was shot in Mahabalipuaram and the location became sought-after tourist spot since cinema is a powerful medium. No doubt, Chief Minister KCR will take it forward since he is a visionary," says award winning filmmaker Allani Sridhar.