The Hindu Business Line : Where culture, investment & entertainment go hand in hand

A file picture of members of India’s cricket team on their way to the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai. Thousands thronged the streets, braving monsoon rain to greet the cricketing heroes who lifted the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup title against Pakistan in Johannesburg.

V. Gangadhar

There is no doubt that Mumbai and Maharashtra are the centres of entertainment in the country. The multi-crore Hindi film industry, popularly referred to as Bollywood, is not the only factor. The people of Mumbai want to be entertained at all levels and corporates are fully justified to be on the lookout for new areas of entertainment.

There is entertainment on the roads. On September 26, the people of Mumbai, braving pouring rain, came out on the streets and spent more than four hours cheering the motorcade which carried the Indian cricket team, winners of the ICC Twenty20 World Cup from the Sahar airport to Wankhede stadium where the heroes were felicitated by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the Maharashtra Government.

The motorcade covered nearly 50 km and made us think of the famous ticker tape welcome accorded to heroes in the US. The entire show was pure entertainment but had to be organised properly. The welcome was organised by WIZCRAFT, a well-known firm specialising in event management which has become part of the city’s entertainment industry.

Mumbai has functions throughout the years, exhibitions, youth festivals, film festivals, business conventions, book launches which are all part of entertainment industry and needed to be organised. No wonder, event management is now a major part of the city’s entertainment industry. Entertainment and the need to organise it seem to come naturally to the people of Mumbai.

Youth festivals

Several colleges in the city every year organised major inter-collegiate and cultural youth festivals which attracted sponsorship from top corporate houses. The three-day long ‘Malhar’ youth festival at St. Xavier’s College, ‘Mood Indigo’ at the IIT, Powai are now major youth and cultural events, covered in detail by the media, hugely entertaining and called for considerable investment which was readily forthcoming from the top ranking sponsors.

With around 70 colleges in the city and suburbs, the youth festivals are now held throughout the year and offer wonderful opportunities for those who wanted to organise and invest in the entertainment industry.

Bollywood

Actor Shah Rukh Khan at the ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ show in Mumbai.

But the ‘dada’ of the city’s entertainment world, is, of course, Bollywood which churned out more than 500 feature films every year. The industry, worth nearly Rs 5,000 crore, is not only about entertainment but a huge investment opportunity in several directions.

Films needed dubbing, music recording, editing, shooting, choreographing and other facilities, each needing special expertise.

The city can offer all these and more. If you wanted all of them under one roof, visit Mumbai’s famous film city.

This huge tract of land located at the western suburb of Goregaon is a magic and make believe land where you can have palaces, ashrams, temples, waterfalls, mountains peaks and everything else one needed to film a spectacular movie.

‘Gandhi My Father’

Says Feroz Khan, whose latest film, ‘Gandhi My Father’, now making waves all over the world: “The film city is the dream of a producer. It is a very well managed institution, where every one is helpful and cooperative. It has the necessary infrastructure to fulfil most of our needs”. Several TV channels have erected permanent sets to shoot their soaps in the film city.

The much-acclaimed (two versions of the) popular quiz show ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ was shot in a fantastic studio set at the same venue. The Film City also housed producer-director Subash Ghai’s well-known Film Institute.

If a producer wanted to shoot elsewhere, he can also opt for Yashraj Studios which was rated as among the best in the world or dozens of huge private bungalows which were hired out for the purpose.

Culture, entertainment and investment also went hand in hand with respect to Mumbai’s multi-language theatre activities.

Ask adman-cum-theatre personality Bharat Dabholkar who came out with those spectacular, naughty comedies often making fun of everyone including the city’s celebrity culture. Bharat’s shows always ran ‘house full’ and were sponsored by a number of top ranking institutions, including banks. The corporates, however, are partial to English theatre in the city because most Mumbai ad agencies had men and women who were themselves actively connected with the stage (Alyque Padamsee, Gerson D’Cunha, Ronnie Screwwala who has graduated to big time movie making).

Even the classical arts and music had benefited from the attention paid to them by event managers and corporate sponsors. ‘Pancham Nishad’ started by former chartered accountant Shashi Vyas and some of his colleagues is now a big name in the city, organising and sponsoring classical music programmes, including those by promising young singers. Recently, Vyas started ‘Only Tuesday’, a weekly newspaper devoted solely to cultural coverage.

Sports arena

From the world of culture to the world of sports, yet another big-time entertainment and potential investment arena.

While all leading games, particularly cricket, had their major sponsors, hockey, of late had come of note thanks to Shah Rukh Khan’s memorable hit film, ‘Chak De India’, a slogan effectively used by our victorious cricket team.

Golf fever had caught on in the city and very soon, Mumbai will stage international F 1 motor racing.

One of the most popular sites for future racing drivers is the Hakone Go-Cart Centre, the first of its kind in the country, at the Hiranandani Gardens, in the lush green suburb of Powai.

Started in 1998 by Surendra Hiranandani, from the well-known family of builders, Hakone has the longest Go-carting track and offers three different varieties, Cadet, Professional and Championship.

Located on two acres of hilly terrain, the Hakone Centre has facilities for physically challenged youngsters and boasts of perfect security norms.

Often sought after by film makers, TV serials and ad makers, the centre is patronised by film, TV celebrities. Anyone between the ages of eight and 60 can have loads of fun here.

And who can forget the entertainment offered by the city during the festival season?

Many of Mumbai’s top commercial firms compete fiercely in organizing and sponsoring ‘Navratri garba and dance’ festivals, disco dancing featuring internationally known singers like Phalguni Pathak.

The top hotels in Mumbai are not just symbols of hospitality industry.

They also play a role in providing entertainment holding in-house plays, art and painting shows and also auctions where the best works of Indian painters were auctioned by firms such as Sotheby’s and Christie’s.

Opportunities galore not just in Mumbai but in the entire western region. There is money, initiative and variety here.

Those who want to invest in entertainment should not waste any more time. Come here and see for yourselves

More Stories on : Entertainment & Leisure | Maharashtra

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