If you have enough money in your pocket, all the wonders and attractions in the world will walk up to you and park themselves near you, so that you can visit them as and when you want, without having to go around the world and hop cities. Innovative film city is one such ambitious project that brings a lot of world attractions to India. It is a place that is aiming to be one stop shop for all forms of modern day entertainment.

Innovative film city is located about 40 kms from Bangalore on Mysore road, a good strategic location as it will be accessible from both Bangalore and Mysore. The whole city is said to be spread over 58 acres, but to me it looks like it should be slightly larger than that, at least it gives the illusion to be larger. The place is still under construction but was opened formally in April, 2008. There are few attractions and amusements which are operational, some are in the process of coming up and some are planned to come.

Film city is planned to provide 360 degree solutions for entertainment, both for the customers of entertainment industry and the industry itself. It’s website says three major planned sections of entertainment. First is Innovative Attractions which covers amusements, attractions, museums and entertainment. Second is Innovative Style which covers shopping, dining, leisure & lifestyle. Third is Innovative Studio which would have an academy, studio and facilities for film shooting and production.

Of the attractions, most are ready or almost ready. You have museums like Tussuad’s wax museum, Ripley’s Believe it or not museum, Guinness book of World Records and Jurassic Fossil museum. There are attractions like Dinosaur world, miniature city, Snow Park, mock sets, cartoon city, haunted mansion. In Amusements they have Funplex where you can play whole lot of video and high end games and also see a 4-D movie. Then there is go-karting, mirror maze, mini golf, aqua kingdom where you can go and play around for some time. There are two amphitheaters, one an open one with a sitting capacity of more than 5000 people and another for children. A 21 screen multiplex is planned too. The other too segments Style and Studio are yet to come up.

The façade of the city gives a magnificent look. As you take a turn from the road, and enter the city it makes you feel as if you are entering something majestic. As you go inside, at this point in time you see a lot of construction going on, but you can also see that something world class is being built, both in terms of attractions and the way the facility is being managed. There are a lot of employees spread across the length and breadth of the city who keep guiding you towards various places, though there are well printed maps and guides that they hand you over with the tickets. The facility is very well maintained even though half of it is still under construction. There is a food court where you get various cuisines at reasonable prices, and there are coffee day outlets for your caffeine and snacks needs. Drinking water is available at various places.

Entry to the city is priced at Rs 50/- per person and each attractions comes at an additional cost which ranges from Rs 50/- to Rs 200/- . You can plan for Rs 800-1000 per person for a day to visit to the film city, and I am sure you can see only a part of it in a day. Once it is complete, it looks like there will be many things that will keep bringing people back to the film city, specially the huge and well designed amphitheater. I think this is going to become a major destination for the future shows in the city. Parking is outside the film city on the road at the moment, I am not sure if a proper parking is planned, but I hope there is one, otherwise that may become a bottleneck very soon. Probably they may also want to come up with differential pricing for people who may not be able to afford the current or the future pricing. May be something like happy hours on weekdays…

Overall a good project that brings something new and different to the city to keep it engaged. I usually do not like visiting artificial places but I would still say that is definitely worth one visit, post which you can take a call if you want to visit it again or not.