Noida Film City Yogi Adityanath's 'dream project', to come up in next 3 years: Srivastava

The proposed film city near Noida is a "dream project" of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and is expected to be completed in the next three years, the state's Film Vikas Parishad Chairman Raju Srivastava said Wednesday. Srivastava, a comedian-actor, led a state government delegation that visited the site and reviewed the progress of the project scheduled to come up along the Yamuna Expressway in western Uttar Pradesh.

The delegation met with the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority officers, including CEO Arunvir Singh, and officials of project consultant CBRE South Asia.

"It is a dream project of Chief Minister Adityanath. Once our chief minister decides to do something, it gets done. Our effort will be to get the project completed within the stipulated time," Srivastava told reporters.

"The project is expected to be completed within next three years," he added.

Srivastava and accompanying officials of Film Bandhu, the Uttar Pradesh government's nodal agency for film production-related facilities, were apprised that the consultant would be shortly submitting a tentative study report of the project which will give an idea about the facilities the film city can have and the budget required for it. "It has to be a world-class film city only then can we attract talented artistes from places like Mumbai and elsewhere because as such film cities are in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai also," Srivastava said.

YEIDA Additional CEO and Officer on Special Duty Shailendra Bhatia said the delegation was informed that CBRE would be submitting a tentative draft of the detailed project report by February 20. 

"The draft would give an idea about the components and facilities of the project and an approximate budget required for it. The timeline for its completion would come up accordingly and may vary depending on the model, like it could be built on public-private partnership mode," Bhatia said.

The film city is being planned on a 1,000-acre area along the Yamuna Expressway in YEIDA's Sector 21. An area of 1,000 acres has been earmarked for the film city project of which 220 acres would be commercial and the remaining 780 acres industrial, he said.

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When asked about a section of the Mumbai-based film industry being wary about the project, Srivastava said no state should be worried over the establishment of a film city in Uttar Pradesh.  "It is only an extension of (cinema) facilities available in the country. Nothing is being taken away from or any state," he told the reporters. 

He stressed that the film city will benefit local talented artistes, among others, who cannot go out of the state for work due to several conditions, including financial restraints, to showcase their art to the world instead of living in oblivion.  

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