Vizag Can Be Hotspot For Film Making: Suresh Babu

Visakhapatnam: Film producer and Suresh Productions CEO Daggubati Suresh Babu on Friday said Visakhapatnam with its beautiful beaches and valleys has all the ingredients to become an ideal destination for film production.

He said one should analyse what was ailing the tourism sector. “India draws 10.5 million foreign tourists annually against 18 million by Vietnam and Dubai and 30 million by Paris,” he said and underlined the need to create the facilities to impress the tourism enthusiasts to experience various locations in India.

Speaking at a Travel and Tourism Summit organised by CII here, he described how Hyderabad emerged as an alternative filming location to Chennai and the struggle it went through to achieve flight of film production units from Chennai due to initiatives taken up by then Chief Ministers N T Rama Rao, M Channa Reddy and Kotla Vijayabhaskar Reddy.

While admitting over the years, Chennai became a main centre for cinema production units in the entire South due to infrastructure available there, he said the first bold step was initiated by legendary actor NTR by offering tax benefits. Later Kotla allotted 65 acres for the producers and the workers to migrate and settle down in Hyderabad.

“Vizag has a lovely hotel on the beach road but it’s not hygienic. We need several add-on facilities and steps to market our unique culinary skills. We need a tourist-friendly environment and attitude. Why should one run around so many places to get various clearances for cinema shooting when places like Colombo extend a red carpet welcome. To make Visakhapatnam an alternate destination, there is a need to develop facilities for dubbing artists, dance masters, fighting trainers, photographers and recording artists.

With the advent of YouTube, he pointed out small or big production units have the capability to produce films at low-cost destinations and cited how Rishabh Shetty’s Kantara-1 shot at Keradi coast of Karnataka turned into a big hit. He said Tirumala is visited by many from across India and abroad but only a few prefer to spend time in nearby places because of the failure to promote

tourist-friendly destinations.