Rajgir: Bihar’s first film city is all poised to come up at the Tourist City of Rajgir. Spread over 22 acres of land, it will boast of all modern facilities of filmmaking including shooting sets, studios and post production lab. The Rajgir Film City would be located around a village called Pilkhi in the Nalanda district of Bihar. The construction work is likely to be started by end of January 2015.
The idea of the film city was first mooted by Bihar Government earlier in July this year. In past Bihar State Film Development Corporation had also expressed interest in setting up a film city.
The proposed film city would help local film industry, particularly Bhojpuri, to prosper. Bhojpuri film producers and directors have long been demanding development of the film city, so that they could prepare films in a cost-effective manner.
At present Bhojpuri and other local filmmakers have to go to Mumbai for post-shooting part of filmmaking, i.e. dubbing, editing and other technical works, which heavily escalates their budget.
In 2012, New Delhi-based consultant, Grand Thornton, had prepared a feasibility report for the development of a film city in the state at one of the four places – Hajipur, Bihta, Gaya and Rajgir.
Many Bollywood personalities are likely to be associated with the Film City. Last year, Manoj Bajpai was quoted saying, “Senior actor Shatrughan Sinha and myself are ready to contribute in developing Bihar as a major destination of film like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and others,”. Bajpai himself hails from Bihar.
In 2011, Bhojpuri actor Ravi Kissen had also requested the state chief minister Nitish Kumar to set up a film studio in Patna for shoots in the state.
The Government also plans to set up a sister film city at Valmikinagar in West Champaran district of the state. Valmikinagar hosts Bihar’s lone tiger reserve that provides shelter to around 28 tigers.