Shinde clears Sahara's 150-acre film city plan

MUMBAI: The Sahara group has got an ''in principle'' approval from chief minister Sushilkumar Shinde to build a ''world-class'' film city spread across 150 acres of land smack next to the government-owned Film City in Goregaon.
The proposed complex is to have state-of-the-art pre- and post-production facilities, digital multi-camera shooting equipment, non-linear editing suites, sound recording and mixing studios, preview theatres, animation facilities and several outdoor locations.Film luminaries have in the past expressed dissatisfaction with the existing facilities at the Goregaon complex which, ironically, was the brain-child of Shinde in his earlier avatar as culture minister.
Senior executives from Sahara, V B Chandra and O P Dixit, had a meeting with Shinde and senior officials from the state government to discuss the project. Following this, Sahara group chairman Subrata Roy wrote to the chief minister thanking him "for having agreed, in principle, to allot about 100 to 150 acres of land adjoining Film City in Goregaon (east) which is lying vacant".
That the project, which awaits a final nod from the Democratic Front government, enjoys the support of the CM was apparent from Roy''s letter, which referred to the encouragement the proposal had received from Shinde. "Ever since you encouraged us to go ahead with this project," the Sahara chief wrote, "we have been working on its details in collaboration with a number of renowned organisations all over the world and are now ready to start the project without losing any time."
The matter seems to have acquired urgency since the code of conduct for the forthcoming assembly elections is likely to come into force soon, after which no policy decisions can be taken.
Roy has assured Shinde that the existing government-owned Film City will not be disturbed in any way by the project. He has sought 200 ac-res on a 99-year lease, 50 acres more than what has been agr-eed to in principle by the CM.
Shinde was not available for comment, but Dixit confirmed that the Sahara group was awaiting final allotment of the land. According to Sahara, several film personalities including Rav-eena Tandon, Mahima Chau-dhary, Urmila Matondkar, had welcomed its initiative.