Tollywood Tours to Enchant Fans, Fill Telangana Coffers

By V V Balakrishna

Published: 14th January 2016 04:29 AM

Last Updated: 14th January 2016 06:42 AM

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HYDERABAD: Wanna meet your favourite silver screen stars? Gone are the days when you jostled with fans to catch a glimpse of your favourite actors and actresses in Tollywood. For the Telangana Tourism department is planning to introduce Tollywood-Tourism, offering movie buffs an opportunity to visit studios and shooting locations.

The plan is to take tourists to the studios, recording theatres and locations charging nominal fee. But, the Tourism department will not give an assurance that the tourists can interact with any star or technician. They will arrange buses and take people to shooting locations. If the movie buffs are lucky enough, they can meet their ‘screen gods’ and have a photo session too. You may also get a chance to watch live shoots. If you are lucky enough, you may even get an opportunity to chat with your favourite celebrity. And god willing, you may even get a career chance in Tollywood. Tollywood Tourism will also help diehard film fans, who are desperate to get an opportunity to explore the tinsel world. If they are lucky enough, they can talk to the directors and producers and try their luck in the film industry. 

 

Telangana Tourism secretary B Venkatesham will forward a formal request to the Tollywood to start the “Tollywood Tourism”.

Post bifurcation, Hyderabad is the only film capital for both the states. “People from even AP come to Hyderabad and visit studios and other places,” officials said.

“It is a novel idea to start Tollywood Tourism,” said film producer Dil Raju. Tourism secretary Venkatesham discussed the idea with Dil Raju on Wednesday.

“The department will soon consult other producers like Daggubati Suresh Babu. Later, a formal letter will be sent to the film chamber to launch an innovative tourism package,” official sources revealed.

The Maharashtra Tourism department has already started Bollywood Tourism with three kinds of packages. If Telangana Tourism fixes a tariff of Rs 1,000 per head and has a minimum 500 tourists daily, the department will earn crores through the initiative, claimed the official.

“If our Tollywood Tourism plans work out, then around 25 percent of the revenue will be set aside for the welfare of those artistes or technicians who are in dire conditions. This initiative will also help the industry,” officials in Tourism Department said.

Meanwhile, the State government is also making arrangements like introducing single-window permission to encourage Tollywood to conduct shootings at various tourist spots in Telangana districts.