The Hindu Business Line : Hyderabad to get Digital Entertainment City

Hyderabad, Jan. 18 In a public-private partnership initiative, a consortium of animation and gaming firms and production houses — FX Labs, Suresh Productions, DQ Entertainment, Gemini TV — and the Andhra Pradesh Government have come together to establish the country’s first Digital Entertainment City in Hyderabad, along with an Entertainment Academy to be launched in June.

The first phase will be ready by December. A Digital Entertainment City Task Force (DECTF) has also been formed. This will consist of industry leaders and representatives of the State Government.

A statement said the project will host animation and game companies, film production houses, music and TV studios, training academies, regulation support office and an entertainment complex.

The State Government will allot land near Hyderabad and the project is to be managed by the DECTF. While the investment numbers will be announced later, there is also an invitation for other players to be part of the project. The AP IT&C Secretary, Mr S.K. Joshi, in a statement said: “The project will facilitate and encourage the growth of the animation, gaming, television, film, multimedia, radio, music and new media industries.”

The Founder and Chairman, FXLabs, Mr Sashi Reddi, said: “Within 10 years, Hyderabad and Andhra Pradesh will become one of leading global centres for media and entertainment. Given the support from the industry, the initiative has the capacity to change the competitive landscape.” The MD of Suresh Productions, Mr Suresh Babu, said: “Advancements in technology are helping the Indian film industry in all the spheres — film production, film distribution, exhibition and marketing. The industry is increasingly getting corporatised and with a compounded annual growth of 18 per cent, it is projected to be $38.25 billion by 2010.”

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