One of my memorable vacations- Trip to Ramoji Film City

lex123 · Jan 7, 2011

I had a memorable time during my visit to Hyderabad. An old friend of mine, now working in Malyasia, wrote to me that she will be coming to her hometown in Hyderabad on leave, and invited me to join her to spend some time together so that we can catch up for the past few years. As I was also free and had not seen Hyderabad before, I decided to accept her invitation.

As soon as I reached Hyderabad my friend made plans to take me to many of the tourist places which I was keen to visit. Our first visit was to Ramoji Film City, located about 25 kms South East of Hyderabad on the NH9. We had booked our seats through AP tourism bus, at Balayogi Paryatak Bhavan, in Begumpet. Our ticket for general guided tour was Rs.750/-which was including Rs.150/- bus charge and the entrance charge of Rs.600/- to the Ramoji Film City. (There were more expensive tickets available, with more facilities like welcome drink, AC bus, lunch and more). The bus was full with local and foreign tourists, and left early in the morning at around 8.45 a.m.

There was a security checking at the entrance. We had taken some food with us, but had to leave it outside with them since it was not allowed inside (which of course they returned to us after our return). After getting inside, we saw the same bus which we came and took us till the main place. After dropping us there, we were asked to return by 6 p.m. to the same spot. From that point we were picked up by the red tourist buses of Ramoji Film City. There are many such red tour buses inside.

This film studio complex covers a distance of 2000 acres, with film pre-production, production, and post-production resources of over 500 settings, including hi-tech laboratories. You can get into any of these red buses and within no time it will be full. As we go around in the bus, the guide would explain to us about the various things and structures that we see on the way. When it stops in one point you can get down there and see the places as you like and hop into another bus at your convenience. The guide will follow the same pattern and after some touring it will stop at some point where you can get down and see the things and later hop into another red bus there. Like this you can cover the whole area, and it depends upon you how much time you spend at each point. One thing I was really impressed was that the whole place was clean and well maintained.

Some of the most interesting things we saw include a Japanese garden, green zoo, Mughal garden, intricately carved Kripalu caves, a large pool, artificial waterfalls, beautiful narthakis, hospital setting, a railway station, an airport terminal, mosques, churches, temples, shopping plazas, palace interiors, rural complexes, urban dwellings, a winding highway, and even model US and European settings. There are many things for the entertainments of the children. 3-star and 5-star hotels are also available inside the complex. In addition, great Shopping facilities are also available there.

At the end, you will reach the magical place – Ramoji Film Magic. There they showed us (inviting 3 youngsters from the audience) how films are produced, how the sounds are created and how they are combined together to get the desired effect etc.

Many films and television serials are shot here. The infrastructure is such that twenty international films and forty Indian films can be produced simultaneously in this complex.

Finally, we entered the food court and had great Hyderabad biriyani. The rate was just reasonable, can’t say it was too much. It is really an ultimate leisure destination for holidays! This city of perpetual charms has every kind of color to suit your mood and temperament.

After enjoying a wonderful day there, by sunset, we left the Film City. Actually one day is not sufficient to see everything there, but we couldn't afford to spend more time there, as my next day was planned for seeing other places there. No wonder every year this film studio attracts more than a million tourists from all over the world!!