REPORTER: Jonathan Harley
Rao had a dream a big, wide screen technicolour dream with Dolby sound, digital special effects, and an endless roll of A list acting talent, directors and technical whizzes. Oh, and it was all set to music. After making fifty films in the world's busiest movie market, he knew there had to be songs.
You can't have a Bollywood blockbuster without songs. And the Indian mogul's hoping no Bollywood blockbuster will be complete unless it's commenced, completed and post-produced at his special somewhere, way out back of nowhere his Dreamworld India's film city.
South Asia correspondent, Jonathan Harley, has our postcard.
HARLEY: It's a midweek matinee session at the New Empire cinema in suburban Bombay. And once again, Indian cinema is showing itself to be an awesome drawcard.
Not a Fantale in sight not even popcorn. They're here for the movie a melodrama and they're here in droves. Nowhere else in the world is there a bigger movie audience ticketing a $2.3 billion box office. And nowhere else is there more prolific production.
Bollywood knocks out its song and dance epics quicker than you can say Amitabh Bachchan . He's India's most adored screen idol.
Overall, it's thought about 27,000 films have been produced in India since Harishchandra Bhatvadekar debuted his shorts in this part of the world in 1899. Do the sums and that adds up to an extraordinary annual output.
It all has to come from somewhere, and one man's hoping that somewhere is here...smack bang in the middle of nowhere.
Ramaji: I believe that this is a very viable project and it will work.Harley: You've never doubted it?Ramaji: I have no doubt at all.
LA has Hollywood; Bombay has Bollywood. And now Hyderabad has its Film City.
Ramaji: I want the whole world to come and then do their work here. That is what I build this for.
Ramaji Rao's a tiny, reclusive man with a big dream and big pockets. A kind of Rupert Murdoch turned Walt Disney; he made a fortune in media and just about everything else you can imagine. Now he's ploughing that cash into this enormous film facility on the outskirts of Hyderabad.
Reporter: How do you feel when you look out on this vast empire?
Ramaji: It is a satisfying experience. I feel I look forward that this is going to be a historical place. The World Film production centre. It will become famous while I'm around and after me.
Reporter: How much more still needs to be done?
Ramaji: Maybe forever, because for a creative thing there is nothing like the end. It will go on, and I will keep on changing things, keep on adding things. And I would never say that this can be said complete.
It's all here, and if it isn't, it's on the way. There's the international terminal ready made for your airport disaster flick. There's the hospital, if the script calls for something unexpected and terminal for a key character. There's the frontier fort for a western shoot-em-up, with cowboys, and -- well Indians.
There's the quiet suburban middle American cul de sac.
And out the back there's the pool and the gang from the miniseries, Hot Hot Stuff.
Woman: What are you drinking?
Man: Vodka.
Woman: May I have some?
Man: Sure, sure. Director: Cut it!
Hot Hot Stuff is one end of the production schedule at Film City the cheap, cheap end. Down here in made for regional television drama-land, the actors complain. They complain about the pay being too small.
Reporter: So Bengali television is really the poor cousin?
Sabyasaghi: It's really the poor cousin. Poor second cousin. We are not getting enough funding. The amount of money that I get doing a Bengali serial, is chicken feed compared to what the others get in the other languages. And we are the chicken feeds of the chicken feeds.
Hot Hot Stuff is a knockitout, knockabout regional series that makes Neighbours look like an art house production. In many ways it's out of place in this grand venue.
Anbjan: This place was built with the mainstream cinema in mind. It's difficult to do a very realistic, typical Indian cinema realistic cinema. It's meant for big budget commercial film, it's meant for that. So there is a certain, there is a certain gloss and glossness to it.
Up the road and up the budget scale of a rupee or two million, all they can do is smile and sing and dance.
Nothing down at heel about the production or the title. The Gods is a grand Telegu language tale of jealousy and redemption, bound for release in the south.
The actors aren't high end Hindi stars from the Bollywood marquee. The language makes this off, off Bollywood. Still the pay and conditions are okay. You won't find any serial television gripes here except perhaps that being an acting god isn't what it used to be.
Raj: Initially they were treated like Gods, because they used to stay in the studios, and the shooting used to happen only in those. And to see an actor would be like, wow, that's an actor there. Now it's like every Tom, Dick and Harry is an actor or some film personality.
Budget-wise, The Gods is a big screen mid-ranger. And while the cast and crew enjoy the one-stop self contained facilities here at Film City, it's not as cost effective as they'd like.
Raj: I keep telling these Film City people if they can somehow bring down, cut down the cost, there would be about 100 shootings happening here. If they bring down the price, every place would be full.
It seems the only person not complaining about the costs at Film City is the boss. And why would he? He's rich and getting richer.
Ramaji: It's a state of mind, you know, when you are rich, when you are rich, you do not know. You can always be poor and you can always be rich. And I believe I am rich.
So rich, Ramaji Rao just keeps building. Building a home for Indian film production, casting plastic and plaster illusion throughout his 900 hectare sight. Oh, and building a home for himself.
Surely nothing understated. A rival to Gone With The Wind's Tara, or something more media mogul, like Citizen Kane's Xanadu high on a hill, overlooking his dreamland.
Ramaji: I feel that a man's requirement is not two square meals and some comforts. Man's real comfort is how relevant he is to the society around him. How much happiness he has been able to spread to the rest of the society. So that's how I measure myself.
Reporter: And do films spread happiness?
Ramaji: Yes. Why not? Because as long as they make them laugh, they make them cry. Films can revolutionise also. I have seen it in my own experience here. Social revolutions it can bring. It all depends on how we put them to use.
Rao had a dream a big, wide screen technicolour dream with Dolby sound, digital special effects, and an endless roll of A list acting talent, directors and technical whizzes. Oh, and it was all set to music. After making fifty films in the world's busiest movie market, he knew there had to be songs.
You can't have a Bollywood blockbuster without songs. And the Indian mogul's hoping no Bollywood blockbuster will be complete unless it's commenced, completed and post-produced at his special somewhere, way out back of nowhere his Dreamworld India's film city.
South Asia correspondent, Jonathan Harley, has our postcard.
HARLEY: It's a midweek matinee session at the New Empire cinema in suburban Bombay. And once again, Indian cinema is showing itself to be an awesome drawcard.
Not a Fantale in sight not even popcorn. They're here for the movie a melodrama and they're here in droves. Nowhere else in the world is there a bigger movie audience ticketing a $2.3 billion box office. And nowhere else is there more prolific production.
Bollywood knocks out its song and dance epics quicker than you can say Amitabh Bachchan . He's India's most adored screen idol.
Overall, it's thought about 27,000 films have been produced in India since Harishchandra Bhatvadekar debuted his shorts in this part of the world in 1899. Do the sums and that adds up to an extraordinary annual output.
It all has to come from somewhere, and one man's hoping that somewhere is here...smack bang in the middle of nowhere.
Ramaji: I believe that this is a very viable project and it will work.Harley: You've never doubted it?Ramaji: I have no doubt at all.
LA has Hollywood; Bombay has Bollywood. And now Hyderabad has its Film City.
Ramaji: I want the whole world to come and then do their work here. That is what I build this for.
Ramaji Rao's a tiny, reclusive man with a big dream and big pockets. A kind of Rupert Murdoch turned Walt Disney; he made a fortune in media and just about everything else you can imagine. Now he's ploughing that cash into this enormous film facility on the outskirts of Hyderabad.
Reporter: How do you feel when you look out on this vast empire?
Ramaji: It is a satisfying experience. I feel I look forward that this is going to be a historical place. The World Film production centre. It will become famous while I'm around and after me.
Reporter: How much more still needs to be done?
Ramaji: Maybe forever, because for a creative thing there is nothing like the end. It will go on, and I will keep on changing things, keep on adding things. And I would never say that this can be said complete.
It's all here, and if it isn't, it's on the way. There's the international terminal ready made for your airport disaster flick. There's the hospital, if the script calls for something unexpected and terminal for a key character. There's the frontier fort for a western shoot-em-up, with cowboys, and -- well Indians.
There's the quiet suburban middle American cul de sac.
And out the back there's the pool and the gang from the miniseries, Hot Hot Stuff.
Woman: What are you drinking?
Man: Vodka.
Woman: May I have some?
Man: Sure, sure. Director: Cut it!
Hot Hot Stuff is one end of the production schedule at Film City the cheap, cheap end. Down here in made for regional television drama-land, the actors complain. They complain about the pay being too small.
Reporter: So Bengali television is really the poor cousin?
Sabyasaghi: It's really the poor cousin. Poor second cousin. We are not getting enough funding. The amount of money that I get doing a Bengali serial, is chicken feed compared to what the others get in the other languages. And we are the chicken feeds of the chicken feeds.
Hot Hot Stuff is a knockitout, knockabout regional series that makes Neighbours look like an art house production. In many ways it's out of place in this grand venue.
Anbjan: This place was built with the mainstream cinema in mind. It's difficult to do a very realistic, typical Indian cinema realistic cinema. It's meant for big budget commercial film, it's meant for that. So there is a certain, there is a certain gloss and glossness to it.
Up the road and up the budget scale of a rupee or two million, all they can do is smile and sing and dance.
Nothing down at heel about the production or the title. The Gods is a grand Telegu language tale of jealousy and redemption, bound for release in the south.
The actors aren't high end Hindi stars from the Bollywood marquee. The language makes this off, off Bollywood. Still the pay and conditions are okay. You won't find any serial television gripes here except perhaps that being an acting god isn't what it used to be.
Raj: Initially they were treated like Gods, because they used to stay in the studios, and the shooting used to happen only in those. And to see an actor would be like, wow, that's an actor there. Now it's like every Tom, Dick and Harry is an actor or some film personality.
Budget-wise, The Gods is a big screen mid-ranger. And while the cast and crew enjoy the one-stop self contained facilities here at Film City, it's not as cost effective as they'd like.
Raj: I keep telling these Film City people if they can somehow bring down, cut down the cost, there would be about 100 shootings happening here. If they bring down the price, every place would be full.
It seems the only person not complaining about the costs at Film City is the boss. And why would he? He's rich and getting richer.
Ramaji: It's a state of mind, you know, when you are rich, when you are rich, you do not know. You can always be poor and you can always be rich. And I believe I am rich.
So rich, Ramaji Rao just keeps building. Building a home for Indian film production, casting plastic and plaster illusion throughout his 900 hectare sight. Oh, and building a home for himself.
Surely nothing understated. A rival to Gone With The Wind's Tara, or something more media mogul, like Citizen Kane's Xanadu high on a hill, overlooking his dreamland.
Ramaji: I feel that a man's requirement is not two square meals and some comforts. Man's real comfort is how relevant he is to the society around him. How much happiness he has been able to spread to the rest of the society. So that's how I measure myself.
Reporter: And do films spread happiness?
Ramaji: Yes. Why not? Because as long as they make them laugh, they make them cry. Films can revolutionise also. I have seen it in my own experience here. Social revolutions it can bring. It all depends on how we put them to use.