Vizag poised to become film hub

Visakhapatnam: Many are betting the city would emerge as

movie

hub in south as well as Odisha and Bengal with the setting up of executive capital.

“The city have all facilities for a filmmaker--valleys, beaches, forest cover, villages and cosmopolitan culture,” said Sunil Kumar Reddy, a Telugu movie producer.

The city has been a locale for

Tollywood

and

Kollywood

for many decades. Since early 2000, filmmakers from Kerala, Odisha and Bengal are shooting in the city.

“We can negotiate with the government to develop infrastructure if the city becomes capital,” said Sunil Kumar.

According to sources, the Telugu film industry still depends on Chennai for stunt and dance masters. “Vizag has everything to develop film industry here. Not only movies, but also shootings of TV series in Telugu, Oriya, Bengali, Tamil take place here,” said L Satyanand, trainer to Pavan Kalyan and Mahesh Babu.

He said in a year, around 30 movies in different languages get filmed in Vizag or surrounding areas. When YSR was the CM, 350 acre were offered to the film industry in Nidgattu village of Bheemili mandal, a revenue officer said. He said big ticket producers have approached the government to set up studios in the city.