Akshay Kumar requests Maha CM Devendra Fadnavis to revamp Mumbai’s Film City

Mumbai, Oct 7 (PTI) Superstar Akshay Kumar on Tuesday urged Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to transform the Film City, the iconic place in Mumbai that has been a hub for Bollywood film and television production.

Kumar was in a free-wheeling conversation with Fadnavis at the 25th edition of FICCI Frames here where the two discussed a range of things, from important topical subjects such as 'what steps can government take to popularise Marathi cinema', to the the personal ones like the CM's 'favourite Hindi film' and even his 'preferred way to eat oranges'.

Lauding the city’s infrastructure, Kumar requested Fadnavis to give a full-fledged makeover to the Film City, also known as Dadasaheb Phalke Chitranagari, in suburban Goregaon. It was established by the Maharashtra state government in 1977.

To this, Fadnavis said, "I’ve a regret that during my tenure between 2014 and 2019, it was my wish to develop the Film City into a vibrant international ecosystem." "We did a lot of planning, designing, and also spoke to a lot of people from the film fraternity, but we couldn’t execute it due to various reasons. There are two-three projects that I couldn’t execute it (then) and this is one of them,” he added.

Fadnavis said he is focused on transforming the Film City into a world-class film ecosystem.

"Filmmaking is changing a lot due to VFX, we’ve seen massive changes in terms of post-production and editing, we’ve seen how locations are recreated anywhere with the help of green screen. We’ve to make an ecosystem for all this. Within a year we will start the transformation and in four years we will transform it," he said.

"All the old classic films were being shot here but today films are shot at various locations. We want to transform the Film City completely and in a year’s time we will start (work),” he added.

Kumar said he has been a fan of Marathi cinema and inquired about the Maharashtra government’s plans to further promote it, to which Fadnavis replied that his government will make efforts to attract the attention of the Gen Z audience to Marathi films.

“Marathi films are powerful because of Marathi theatre, which has been so innovative. The Marathi speaking audience is vibrant and the Marathi plays often run housefull, and we see all of that reflecting in Marathi films. For instance, movies like ‘Natsamrat’, ‘Dashavatar’, and even Gen Z are liking all of these (films) and they are connected to Marathi films.

"As a government, we will do whatever we can to boost the Marathi industry and it’s a good suggestion to foster a strong connection with the Gen Z audience,” the minister said.

This marks the second time Kumar has interviewed a political leader, the first being Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2019, ahead of the general elections.

At the time, the actor was trolled for asking PM Modi on how he likes to eat mangoes.

Recalling the incident, Akshay said, “Sir, maine unse (Modi) ek question kiya tha ke ‘aap aam kaise khante hain?’ Toh logon ne mazak udaya tha. Lekin sir main nahi sudhrunga. (Sir, I had once asked him (PM Modi) a question — ‘How do you eat a mango?’ People made fun of me for that. But sir, I’m not going to change." He then asked Fadnavis if he liked oranges, to which the Maharashtra Chief Minister replied in the affirmative. The Bollywood superstar then asked if he likes to peel them or drink orange juice.

Fadnavis said he enjoys eating oranges by cutting them in half, sprinkling a bit of salt, and savouring them much like one would eat a mango.

Akshay also about Fadanvis' favourite film and the Maha CM said it was the Anil Kapoor-starrer “Nayak: The Real Hero" (2001).

“Wherever I go, people tell me, ‘Do work like ‘Nayak’ film, look how much work he did in just one day as a Chief Minister… How he changed the world in one day.’ Once, I met Anil Kapoor ji and I asked him, ‘Why did you make ‘Nayak’? People feel, ‘You are Nayak and we are incompetent’. How did you do so many things in one day in that film?’ It set a benchmark,” the minister said.

During the conversation, Fadnavis even suggested a film on the topic of cyber crime due to the growing instances of it in real life.

“There has been a rise in digital crime, deep fakes, the financial crime are heinous and the film industry has not showcased this in a way. Films are the best way of communicating and they’ve the power and they should focus on digital war,” he said. PTI KKP RB RB