Hyderabad Trips:Ramoji Film City

On a Friday evening when prashanth asked me whether I am coming for RFC and KFC, I was in a dilemma what to say. Suddenly I couldn’t recognize what is this RFC . Is it something like KFC ?  Picture of non veg things in KFC came to mind of a veggie like me and forced to say no.  But how foolish.. how can I not know the very famous Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad which is also known as RFC!! leaving RFC  in a Hyderabad trip is something  similar to  lussi without sugar  or lappy without power. You can find many localites saying that it takes one whole week to cover  RFC fully  , to cover many features of RFC you have to start from home at 4am atleast and so on.. Thinking that I am exaggerating the things too much? Not really.  If you want  about some of the beautiful moments spent by me and my friends in RFC, go on.

Many friends agreed and bus was booked. Not going to further details about it, let me take you directly to the time we reached RFC in Saturday morning. It was around 10:30. Entry Fee there is 600 per head for adult Indian citizens. There is also a special package of 1200. Group discount is available to student s on carrying their ID cards. Speaking about group discounts reminded me about the wonderla  trip of my highschool and ooty trip in college where we availed discounts carrying IDs.  Ok, gone are those golden school and college days… ok, lets come back to present again.  There is no separate fee for cameras and you can take photographs and videos wherever you want. After all it is a film city which is meant to be shooting only :-) 

The vehicles carried by us is not allowed inside RFC area. We can travel from one place to other place using the bus provided by RFC. Buses are good and numbered  along with a guide in each bus. we have to catch a bus to a place, watch the there  in that place and catch another bus to other place at the exit of that place.  There are volvos also.. But, if you want to enjoy the ride in that you should be in special package!!

 First we went to Eureka. It is the Place where you land first after catching bus from Ticket counter.To go out of RFC also you have to come here only.  So, In other words it is the starting  and ending point of RFC.  From Eureka stop, we went to Fundustan.  It reminded us about our childhood.

The paintings on both sides of the walls are worth many snaps.  Nobody should forget to take a snap with Ravana , flowers, fruits and many other things present there.

There  was a boat like structure.  Inside it there  were many video games . After enjoying some of it, we moved out it. There was a play area filled with sand.  It had plenty of games like climbing a rope ladder, travelling on a rope, balancing over rope  were thrilling and enjoyable.  After rejoycing there ,  with sweat pouring from all parts of our body and sand filled thorough our shoes we went to Borasura nearby..It is very cool place .. literally J the cool air inside made us relax :-) 

 

 Borasura is also  known as a magician’s workshop. It has many 2D and 3D mazes. There is also an ICICI ATM nearby !!  Of course, it has nothing to do with the games being played , as you can play games any number of times by taking a ticket of 20 Rs once :-)  But it has certainly something to do with the cost of the food items and vast collection of shopping items and shops available in RFC :-)

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Ramoji Spirit Dance Show

 After visiting Borasura, you can visit the dome theatre near by.   On  the way, don’t forget to take snaps with the Bal Hanuman and Snake ladder games . As it was not the show time when we reached dome theatre, we thought to see other places.  It was around 12:30. Then we again came to Eureka .We saw the Ramoji Spirit Dance show at 12:45. 

It  covered many varieties of dance forms and was nice. We thought to eat something else instead of lunch. Then we thought of visiting shooting spots.

 

 This bus journey is also  one of the memorable experiences in RFC  .  Guide first showed a garden where a song of hildi film hero Govinda’s song is shot. From outside , that garden looks like Moghul garden of delhi  and from inside, its like Brindavan garden of Mysore !!After that he showed the garden where the Song of Dirty was shot.  According to the information shared with us, there are 125 such gardens in RFC!! Considering the fact that RFC is spread over an area of 1666 acres it should not be a astonishing fact now.   :-)

Then he showed many fountains,  pillers with articrafts.He showed lime light garden where functions, parties etc are held.  We saw Leg Garden from a distance. All lamp posts n both sides of the road you see there are detachable there so as to make the national highway in which heroine escapes from her home !!.  We saw the ETV office and place from where uplinking and downliking of ETV is carried out. We came to know that RFC is having around 6000 employees including ETV staff!!  We saw Charisma garden. It is having variety of flowers.  Guide told us that it will be decorated with same colour of flowers as the saree colour of heroine and shirt colour of hero. But much to the disappointment of classical film lovers  the garden is loosing its importance nowadays.. As the tradition of heroines wearing big sarees and duet song with hero in the garden is being lost with the tides of time.

Then  we saw many south Indian streets and houses where bollywood movies like BadeMia Chote Mia are shot. Houses are not houses of course. They will have only one side wall of card board, if you open the window, nothing inside !! s There are vendor streets and shops which will be open only during shooting.. Ofcourse, buses  won’t take you there if some shooting is going on.. So everytime the things u can see in RFC can vary!!   After seeing that thing, on seeing each building in RFC, I used to get the same doubt. Whether it is real building or fake..  we saw buildings with 4 faces.  Ofcourse, any building has 4 face. But the speciality there is all 4 faces have entrance and have different appearances.  That means hero, heroine, villain, comedian all can reside in a same house !!

Then we suddenly moved to Hollywood!! Without paying a single penny for flight charge ofcourse .. Yes, it is set again. Many films like Sunday of hindi are shot using that.  We seen a airport where RajniKant makes entry in Ra One. Another side of it has a hospital. Another side has Church!! All at a one place.There are numerous wonders like this in RFC. There are also spots for artificial rainfall. There is a village Railway station. Another  side of it looks like city railway station!! The train had MRF tyres instead of wheels !! 

we saw a mythological set..  The sounds of Bahuparaks, voices of kings etc reverberating in that set were suiting very much to the set. It  seemed to take us centuries back in time..  The spots areso large in number that I might have more places than the few places I mentioned !! After seeing these bus stopped near a garden.  It is butterfly garden filled with varieties of butterflies.  

  
Then we saw colour garden .It had blossoming flowers  of  numerous colours.  Then we visited the kripal Gufa. That is also very good and reminded me of the pictures of Ajanta and ellora in history  books. Nostalgia..

 



Near  that also there is a beautiful fountain. There are numbers of these ofcourse. Beside that there is statue of a chariot. After walking some distance from that  we found a chariot statue. That view is also very nice. Then catched another bus.  It took us to Hawa Mahal !! It is nice. It also has a small canteen like all other places in RFC.  After getting down  we can see Chinese Garden.

Ramoji Tower

 By that time it was 2:45 pm. And guide informed us that Ramoii Tower and Filmy Dunia will be closed by 3:30. It is also near Eureka. So we rushed to Ramoji Tower.If you purchase 1200 package as mentioned earlier, you need not wait  in Queue there. Otherwise you may have to wait as we waited for 20 minutes. 

 The  3D Effect of falling from 32^nd Floar there is amazing. Then we went to Filmy Dunia. It contained various moving dolls representing culture from all over the world. The journey through them was mind blowing. Then we went to Filmy Dunia. It showed how movies are made, video editing, sound editing and other such related things.  One girl became a volunteer for a heroine and shoolay seen of basanti escaping from dacoos was made there itself and shown to us!! Of course , it is editing Kamal. No dacoos entered the studio :-)

Then  we saw stunt show at 4:45. It mimicked the stunts done in films like bomb blasts, shooting, fighting, falling from a building etc. It was also good. After that we went to play the free rides near Eureka. Experience in Ranger was superb. Can’t forget the experience of being held upside down for some seconds at a height of around 70 feet or so.. I never rided a Pendulum or a giant wheel  in so far !!. So , this was really special for me. And moreover it is safe also due to the various precautions taken out. Then we enjoyed Break Dance , dashing cars. The Dance show in the outside was nice and it was perfectly upholding the message of “save wildlife and nature” . We Enjoyed all the views and experiences  . How can I forget the services of help desks, Drinking water and toilets in every nook and corner. There are various shopping malls and restaurents in RFC. With eyes and mind filled with memories and Happy mind we had to say sayonara to RFC at 630. While returning from Eureka to the place where we boarded the bus in the morning . .the journey seemed to be very long now.. as If the mind is still wishing to stay in RFC itself. If you are planning to visit RFC, you can visit this. 

Colours Garden

Thanks for   your valuable time spent in reading this article. Your comments or suggestions are most welcome. Thanking you again, I am ending this a warm welcome to the blog again. Have a nice time 

Special Thanks to Prashant,Santhosh, Adarsh, Goutham for the photos to thanks to all the friends