Ramoji Film City!

Wow. It was amazing.

I think, however, it was good we were only there a day or so. Any longer and our sense of reality would have been permanently, and irreversibly, warped. Ramoji is not the India that ANY guidebook ANYwhere talks about.

The place was utterly bizarre. The "city" is basically a series of fantastical sets for "Bollywood"-style movie shoots. I don't know if it is ever used much for that purpose, but that was the thinking when it was created. Looking out in any one direction you might see a massive roman-ish fountain and palazzio, an egyptian-inspired bronze statue, a story-book or fairy tale house of some ficticious European time and a gold painted buddha. And nothing looks quite right. Instead of the fountain looking actually Roman, it looks like it was designed and created by someone who just has some notion or fancy of what Rome sort of looked like. And then when you get up close you find that a "stone" structure is actually metal or plaster or something and has been painted a fleshy pink color and then splattered with red and white and brown paint.

Add into the background monkeys roaming the streets, an odd cow here and there, and the hills, rocks and dust of the Andahr Pradesh country-side in the background and it was quite surreal. What with it being about 110 degrees the place was also fairly deserted - there weren't even many tourists - which made it even ghostlier.

Don't think I'm raggin on Ramoji Film City though - it was fantastic. I thought it was amazing and I'm so glad that I went. It has given me a new perspective on "Bollywood" and one small corner of the Indian psyche. Bizarre as it was, in a country with millions (and millions and millions) of poor people, Bollywood is fantasy come alive with Ramoji Film City giving that fantasy another level of reality.

In light of my Bollywood-awakening, we have plans to see "Bunty aur Bubli" (translation - "Bunty & Bubbly") tomorrow night. This is the current hot Hindi film out now. It has everything - singing, dancing, beautiful people, a Bollywood dynasty cast - and more. Think "Bonnie & Clyde" go to Bollywood. Stay tuned!