|
Mumbai, India's entertainment capital and home to Bollywood,
will soon get a theme park in a studio complex on the lines of
Universal Studio in Los Angeles.
This will be a state-of-the-art township with a studio, a theme
park, hotels, a movie museum and shopping malls.
The Maharashtra government has authorised a Hollywood law firm to
identify possible partners for the project in investment, planning,
design and development and is being assisted by a group of
businessmen in Los Angeles.
A memorandum of understanding (MoU) to this effect was signed
earlier this week by Bhushan Gagrani, secretary of culture and
tourism of Maharashtra and managing director of Film City in
Mumbai, and on behalf of the Los Angeles group by Clark Siegel of
Irell & Manella LLP, an attorney and consultancy firm that
represents Hollywood studios including DreamWorks, Universal and
Disney, Ken Silverman, president of Interactive Teamworks, and
Nadadur Vardhan, president of Nadadur Vardhan Inc, an entertainment
consulting firm.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, who was here as part
of his four-city, eight-day US trip to woo investments to his
state, was present at the MoU signing ceremony.
He said: "We are looking at new ways to bring talent and technology
to Mumbai and our film industry. We make nearly 1,000 films a year
in Bollywood and it is indeed the capital of the entertainment
business of India and this is a step to bring Hollywood and
Bollywood closer together."
The ceremony was held at Vardhan's residence and attended by over
200 people including Indian dignitaries and prominent people from
the entertainment industry as well as US Congressman Brad Sherman,
chairman of the sub-committee on international business.
Vardhan told IANS: "This project is worth $2.5 billion. We have
worked on it for two years. It will take another two years to get
it going."
Indo-Asian News Service
|
