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The
Ramoji Film City (RFC) located on Hyderabad-Vijayawada
Highway is a nice outing.
.
The
tickets were bought and after a brisk security check up people
are allowed to get into the waiting bus
of RFC. The bus rode up the wide black asphalt road
winding around a hill. After all the twists and turns,
ditto like in our movies, the sprawling RFC came into
picture.
The bus entered into the fantasy
land; eye balls darted from left to right trying to
drink up all the sights in one swing. Everybody was
dropped off at 'Eureka' (the starting and ending point
of this package tour) only to be transferred into a
red bus, (quite like the one you would find on London
roads).
The red bus
took the wide eyed tourists around the RFC,
Showing
the various gardens ranging from
Japanese to Tea gardens, temples sans idols, schools
which turned into police stations at the drop of
the board, colleges which double up as havelis and
airports whose rear entrance is used for the hospital
shot and side for church. All can have a through
in a south Indian village, a north Indian village, sky
scrapers, slums, Ajanta and Ellora caves and a bazaar.
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An hour had slipped by and
still had a lot of ground to cover; literally. The
bus drops the tourists off at the highest point close
to Hava
Mahal, from where one can discover the gardens on foot.
The immaculate gardens, well manicured lawns, palm
tree lined avenues; the whole thing looked surreal.
Slowly
found the way to Eureka while some tourists took
the returning bus. Earlier during the escorted tour,
the guide had pointed out to a huge statue of a mythological
character holding on to the reins of three horses.
He
claimed that the three horses signified, RFC, Eenadu
newspaper and the Eenadu TV channel.
RFC
is indeed a winning horse from the stables of the media
baron Ramoji Rao.
RFC
has a five star hotel and a three star hotel with an
attached restaurant, besides one
coffee house. But,
the best coffee is available at the small café attached
to the lobby/ ticket/ security entrance. The ticket
is Rs 200 per head on Sunday and Rs 150 per head on
weekdays. For children above three
years of age it Rs 150 on a Sunday and Rs 100 on a
weekday. The cost includes guided tour of the film
city and transportation
within. For those who want to take their own cars,
you will have to pay Rs 700 per person.
It is open
from 9.30
to 3.30. There are two dance and stunts performances
at 10.30 am and 4.30 pm respectively which will be
very entertaining.
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