Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar and film production major Super Cassettes Industries (T-Series) are among the four entities in fray to develop the proposed mega Film City in Noida.
The financial bids submitted by the four companies/consortiums will be opened by the nodal agency Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) on January 30.
The four finalists are Bayview Projects LLP, 4 Lions Films Pvt Ltd, Supersonic Technobuild Pvt Ltd and Super Cassettes Industries Pvt Ltd (T-Series). They cleared the technical bidding process on Saturday.
According to a Uttar Pradesh government spokesperson, the companies gave their detailed presentations to senior officials including state principal secretary and YEIDA chairman Anil Kumar Sagar, YEIDA CEO Arun Vir Singh among others.
The bidders presented their vision, concept, timelines, highlights etc regarding the ambitious project of the Yogi Adityanath government.
Bayview Projects and 4 Lions Films are led by noted Bollywood filmmakers Boney Kapoor and K C Bokadia respectively. Akshay Kumar is part of Supersonic Technobuild. T-Series, which was founded by the late Gulshan Kumar is helmed by his son Bhushan Kumar.
While Boney Kapoor gave the presentation in person, Akshay Kumar participated in the technical bidding process over a web conference.
The 1,000-acre Noida Film City was envisioned to rival the Mumbai Film industry or Bollywood by providing a one-stop world-class filmmaking ecosystem along with modern air and road connectivity.
The proposed project in Greater Noida with estimated cost of Rs 10,000 crore had twice failed to attract bidders ostensibly due to high investment requirement and prohibitive bidding terms.
As a result, a feasibility study was conducted last year for a revised parcel of 230 acres to make it more attractive to investors by augmenting its commercial viability.
In Sep 2020, the Yogi government 1.0 had announced plans to develop a state-of-art Noida Film City of 1,000 acres in the National Capital Region (NCR). The site is an hour away from New Delhi and is near Jewar International Airport, which is now under-construction with the first phase fast nearing completion.
Given the growing popularity of OTT and media streaming platforms, the Film City is envisioned to offer a high capacity data centre along with pre-production and post-production infrastructure, processing labs, VFX and digital technology of international standard.
In Feb 2023, the Yogi cabinet had approved the new UP Film Policy 2023 with the provisions applicable to the films produced in the proposed Noida Film City as well.
The policy promised a 50 percent subsidy on the cost of films made in local dialects of Awadhi, Braj, Bundeli or Bhojpuri. For films in English, Hindi or other languages, the subsidy will be 25 percent.
A subsidy of 25 percent or maximum Rs 50 lakh would be given for setting up studios/labs in the state. If studios/labs are set up in relatively backward Purvanchal, Vindhyachal and Bundelkhand regions, the subsidy would be 35 percent with a ceiling of Rs 50 lakh.
For films logging at least half of shoot days in UP, the subsidy would be to a maximum of Rs 1 crore.