New Film City to come up in Dadasaheb Phalke’s birthplace - Nashik

Pawar said, 'The Nashik Chitranagari project will generate a large number of jobs for local artists, technicians, small industries, hotel business, tourism, transport and service sectors.'

Mumbai: A new Film City will come up in Maharashtra’s temple town of Nashik, which is the birthplace of the legendary producer-director-screenwriter, Dadasaheb Phalke, the Father of Indian Cinema.

The cooperation of the Centre is expected for the mega-project.

To give a boost to the project, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, who is the state Finance & Planning Minister presided over a meeting.

Among those who were present in the meeting included Food and Civil Supplies Minister Chhagan Bhujbal and Cultural Affairs Minister Ashish Shelar, who attended via tele-conference.

“The Nashik Chitranagari project will generate a large number of jobs for local artists, technicians, small industries, hotel business, tourism, transport and service sectors,” said Pawar.

“The government is positive about creating a film industry in Nashik,”he said, adding that after the report of the expert consultants, the feasibility of the project will be examined and a proposal in this regard will be submitted.

“Nashik is the birthplace of Dadasaheb Phalke, the Father of Indian Cinema. Therefore, establishing a cinema in Nashik is a very important matter not only from a cultural point of view but also from an economic, tourism and regional development. Nashik is ideally suited for the creation of a cinema city due to the highways, railways, air transport facilities available to it and the infrastructure facilities provided on the occasion of the Kumbh Mela,” he said.

Bhujbal said the project will bring new cultural and economic opportunities not only for Nashik city and the district but the entire North Maharashtra region.

“Nashik is progressing in various fields today. We are committed to the comprehensive and all-round development of Nashik. Therefore, we will certainly strive to successfully implement this project as well,” he said.

Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, popularly known as Dadasaheb Phalke (30 April 1870 – 16 February 1944) made 94 feature-length films and 27 short films in his career spanning 19 years.

His debut film, Raja Harishchandra, was the first Indian movie released in 1913. Other prominent films were - Mohini Bhasmasur(1913), Satyawan Savitri (1914), Lanka Dahan (1917), Shri Krishna Janma (1918) and Kaliya Mardhan (1919).