Mindscape in Words: Hyderabad Journals, Part 2.

Hello Readers & Wanderlust souls! I know you enjoyed the first part of my Hyderabad Journals by reading all your wonderful comments!! After the wait of a week, here's the next story.. Travel continued with Ramoji Film City adventures!

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On Day 3 of my stay in Hyderabad, I went to Ramoji Film City. It is huge & so it takes the entire day to explore it. Well, if you're from India, you might've heard a lot about Ramoji. Many of the films & daily soaps are shot here including hits like Bahubali. I think Ramoji is home mainly for South Indian films & a few Bollywood ones as well.

So, there were a lot of things to watch at this place. Shall we begin the tour?

Studio Tour & Movie Magic:

The exploration started with many short movies and some shows. There was a 4D space show which was fun. In one show, they told us how action scenes are shot right from scratch. That was really amazing to watch! Others were song-based, action-based shows & comedy-based shows with poor story & direction, according to me, as I did not enjoy them AT ALL. (Yes, the rants have begun!)

The entrance to Ramoji Movie Magic!

One of the comedy musical shows.

For the love of New York!

Set Locations:

There were many locations wherein there were sets & bus tours were arranged for the same. There was one alley wherein all the buildings looked like those in London! There was another alley wherein there were just bungalows. There was a train set too. There were gardens where romantic scenes were shot. There was one bungalow, which the guide told us was actually used as the home for actor, actress & villain by using different entrances. How easily movie people trick us! Must be fun to do that! We also saw sets of Ramayan/Mahabharat. They were pretty huge & too colourful! We also saw a prison, which was really fun! Here are some of the photos!

This looks like one of those Asian Paints bungalows, right?

This is the Central Prison. Inside there was a jail with criminal models!

Set of Ramayan/Mahabharat.

An interesting pillar I thought shouldn’t be missed!

Doesn't it look just like a railway station? Well, it's only a set!

Bahubali Set:

If you're an Indian, you must be well aware about the hyped movie Bahubali & its sequel. Those who are not aware, don't worry, you're not missing out on anything. I didn't like this action-drama film as it is against any logical explanation. So, there isn't a single photo I wanted taken here, but still my brother took a candid anyway. Because, he loves to watch me burn. Whatever.

Keeping my feelings about the movie apart, the set was huge & really amazing! Yes, I’m admitting to actually liking something, partially anyway… It entirely had a brown-ocre theme. There were huge statues of 6 or so horses. A lot of things were placed in that one set! It had an aura of ROYAL to it, which made people go more fan-crazy over it.

After the exit from the Bahubali set, the bus took us to a beautiful view. I enjoyed that as well.

The Throne.

Dad posing!

Mom at the Snack Bar!

Ashwin pretending to be an actor in the Film City.

I like Big Pillars & I cannot lie.

Group family photo for the day!

Bird Park, Eco Park, Flower Park & Kripalu Caves:

I wasn't really expecting these in a Film City. I was tired by viewing all the sets & by the tour. So, it felt meaningless to carry on watching butterflies, ducks & flowers! We have that everywhere! This paragraph does not end with "I was wrong. It was really worth it." We really have that everywhere! All in all, caves were the least boring of all & shortest. So, automatically, they became most liked.

Dracarys!!!

(I clicked this photo only to put that as the caption.)

Inside the caves.

Rantings Begin:

So, it was a long day; REALLY long day. There were 5 to 6 places at least & to go to these places we had to take an internal bus route. And since it was an entire chain system kind of a thing, there wasn't really an escape in the middle. You don't know the way out. Like a maze, once you're in, you'll have to find the way out as per the rules & in slowly. This was the one thing I hated. Because of this, I couldn't skip anything & had to cover everything even if I wasn't interested. It was like being a Literature Major & sitting for a Math lecture.

Secondly, I'm not a film fanatic & hence I didn't like the first part of the tour involving movie scenarios. Most of them were either boring or nonsensical. And all of them gave me a headache. I absolutely did not enjoy that part of the tour And since it was the beginning of the tour, it just ruined my mood right at the start, leaving me cranky the entire day!

Since it is a 2000 acres land, you cannot really go outside for food. So, you're left with restaurants in the city. I only liked 'Drive In Jimmys' where I had the best burger ever! No kidding! The place where we had lunch was only okay. This leaves me to ask, "Why weren't there guides?" There should be some proper system! If you're making the largest studio complex in the world into a tourist attraction, make some ground rules! There should be, probably, batches of tourists & a guide assigned to each one for first half of the tour. Then, people can decide where to eat for themselves from among the few places which are actually open. Then, in the second half, they can gather again. Is it so difficult? I don't think there were even any directions at one point which left everyone baffled. I hate mismanagement & so I didn't like this experience much. But, I couldn't quit, could I?

Apart from all these rantings & the fact that I'd give Ramoji a 4/10 stars, I did like a FEW things about it. (Let me remember.) I liked the one view after the Bahubali set. The photo in which I'm standing by the pillars. (Guess what? That's not a fake smile, for a change!) I loved the burgers. I kind of liked the feel of the caves. The London alley & Central Prison were fun. Okay, I'll stop now. I can't make up stuff anymore. But, yes, if you love films, go there, you'll have a great time!

This post & my opinions are entirely biased given the fact that I'm an introvert who hates typical desi films & hates moving place-to-place in buses & gets bored of things easily. My family enjoyed it, so maybe I'm just weird. But, I don't care. Hope you enjoyed the tour!