An investment of Rs. 650 crore is envisaged in two film cities proposed to be set up in Uttar Pradesh. The memorandum of understanding (MOUs) for the film cities was signed in the presence of the Chief Minister, Akhilesh Yadav at his official residence on Saturday. The Chief Minister said Uttar Pradesh is a good location for film-making even as he assured all possible help from the State Government to producers for shooting their films.
The two film cities are proposed to be set up in the close vicinity of the State capital. While the first film city will be set up on the Agra-Lucknow Expressway with an investment of about Rs. 400 crore, the second film city will be developed in the Trans-Ganga Hitech City Scheme in Unnao. The MOU for the film city on the Agra-Lucknow Expressway was signed with Purple Sea Holdings and will be built with Japanese assistance.
The MOU for the second film city was signed with Messrs. Medhaj Production and Ravi Kishan Production.
The two film cities are expected to generate employment for about 9000 persons.
In addition to the MOUs for the two film cities, the Chief Minister handed over a cheque of Rs. 2 crore to Boney Kapoor, the producer of the film “Tevar”, as grant and Rs. 2.25 crore to Muzaffar Ali, who has produced the film “Jaanisar”.
A grant of Rs. 59.53 lakh was given to the producer of “Dozakh—In Search of Heaven”. The grant has been given under the Uttar Pradesh Film Policy, 2015 for film making in the State.
Mr. Yadav also launched the Film Bandhu website: http://www.filmbandhuup/www.filmbandhuup.in and released a booklet of UP Film Policy.
Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister said the new film policy has drawn many film producers to Uttar Pradesh.
“About 30 films are being shot in the State”, the Chief Minister said. Mr. Yadav said given the size of its population Uttar Pradesh is a very big market. He added both the Taj Mahal and Varanasi are situated in U.P., “but this fact is not known to many foreign tourists.”
The Chief Minister stressed on the need to create awareness in the world about the places of tourist importance and monuments located in Uttar Pradesh.
