It's lights, camera, action at Chitranagari once again

Kolhapur: Chitranagari, the one stop location for all shooting needs of a film or television, is all set to go on floors after a nearly two-decade break.

According to Meghraj Rajebhosale, president of Akhil Bhartiya Marathi Chitrapat Mahamandal (ABMCM) — the apex body of Marathi film industry, a Marathi film was shot earlier last week at the Chitranagari’s open location.

Artistes and film-makers are excited about the renaissance of Chitranagari and are hoping to see the city regain its title of the film city. The industry was on the worst phase some 15-20 years ago, when the Chitranagari had to shut down due to lack of funds and non-availability of infrastructure.

Meanwhile, there are many films which are lined up for the shoot in the coming days. “The monsoon season and the location of Chitranagari is ideal for shoots. Few Hindi production houses too have also approached us for the shooting at Chitranagari,” he said.

“The only issue with the Hindi production houses are that they are very high budget and needs better infrastructure. As our first phase is still under construction, we need to wait for it to get completed. As per our observation, the first phase is likely to get completed by August 15, so then the Hindi productions might as well commence their shootings afterwards,”he added.

Talking about the the second phase of the Chitranagari, Rajebhosale said that it will be started immediately without any kind of delay, to make sure the location offers ready to shoot full-fledge infrastructure to the production houses.

While Milind Ashtekar, who coordinates productions in and around city areas, said that there are two Marathi films which are lined up for shoot at Chitranagari in the month of August.

We are already getting calls from production houses in Mumbai, Pune about the location and the available facilities later this year. Once the construction completes, it will be like a package for the production houses to get all the locations under one roof, he said.

The phase one, according to the officials, includes the typical Patil wada, which is used for the village heads house set in many of the rural background movies, along with a police station set, an indoor jail along with the road and small shops set.

Chitranagari is spread over a 75-acre plot in Morewadi, south of Kolhapur city, and was set up in 1984 by the state government. The objective of setting up the film city was to provide infrastructural set-up to the Marathi film industry and provide all the facilities -from shooting to post production-under one roof.


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