By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 8 Oct: Director General of Information and Chief Executive Officer of Uttarakhand Film Development Council (UFDC), Banshidhar Tiwari met famous Bollywood film actor Paresh Rawal on the set of the upcoming Bollywood film, “Past Tense”, being directed by Ananth Narayan Mahadevan, on the Dehradun-Mussoorie Road. Joint Director, Information, Dr Nitin Upadhyay was also present on this occasion.
Paresh Rawal has worked in more than 240 films in his film career, so far, and received many awards. The film “Past Tense” is being made under the banner of Flying Stones Films and is being directed by Ananth Narayan Mahadevan. The main characters in this film are Paresh Rawal, Aditya Rawal, Adil Hussain, Sharib Hashmi, Tanishtha Chatterjee, Gagan Dev Riar, Smita Tambe, Satish Sharma and Shradha Bhatt. This film is a social family drama, in which maximum support crew has been taken from the local level.
Director General Banshidhar Tiwari said that, in the new film policy passed by the state government, more grant amount has been included for films. Films and web series released on OTT platform have also been included for grants. He said that as per the instructions of Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, the government is fully committed to the development of every sector related to film production. The state government is promoting new activities of direct employment in the state through film production as well as promoting tourism in the state. This newly passed film policy also has a provision to promote the untouched shooting destinations of Uttarakhand. Uttarakhand Film Development Council (UFDC) is also continuously identifying new shooting destinations in collaboration with the Tourism Department so that new shooting destinations can be promoted in the state, and relatively less famous tourist places of Uttarakhand can also be promoted through films.
During the meeting, Paresh Rawal told Director General Tiwari that he has recently completed the shooting of two Bollywood films in Uttarakhand, whose post-production work is going on and these too are on the verge of release soon.
Rawal praised the single window system implemented by Uttarakhand Film Development Council (UFDC) and said that due to the simplicity of all types of shooting permission process in the state, Uttarakhand is emerging as a complete film friendly destination for Bollywood and other states of the country.
He said that, under this new policy, all aspects have been worked on meticulously to increase film shooting. Due to the increased grants for Hindi and local films and timely free shooting permissions, filmmakers coming from outside are getting encouragement to shoot more in the state. He added that the local people here also provide all kinds of help during shooting, which helps the state in creating a favourable environment for shooting films. According to him, there is an atmosphere of enthusiasm among filmmakers due to this new film policy.
It is noteworthy that film and web series shooting has gained momentum in the state for some time. Recently, the shoot of a comedy suspense film, ‘Hisaab’, by producer director Vipul Shah was completed. Before that, the shoot of Anupam Kher’s banner “Anupam Kher Studio” film “Tanvi the Great” was also completed in Lansdowne, whose shooting was done here for 36 days. The shooting of the film, “Vicky Vidya Ka Woh Wala Video”, directed by Raj Shandilya was also completed in the month of March, in which Rajkumar Rao and Tripti Dimri are in the lead roles. Before this, the shoot of “Do Patti” starring Kajol and Kriti Sanon was completed in the month of December.
Joint Director, Information, Dr Nitin Upadhyay said that the “11 11” (Gyaarah-Gyaarah) web series shot in Uttarakhand can be seen on Zee5, in which Uttarakhand’s dancing star Raghav Juyal is one of the main characters. The film “Rautu Ka Raaz” can also be seen on Zee5, in which Nawazuddin Siddiqui has played the lead role. The web series “Life Hil Gayi” can be seen on Disney Hotstar, in which many artists from Uttarakhand have been included. A film named “Tikadam” starring Amit Sial has been released on Jio Cinema Premium on 23 August this month.
The number of films being shot in Garhwali, Kumaoni and Jaunsari local languages in the state is also increasing continuously. In the last few months, Garhwali films, Meethi, Asgar, Shaheed, Sanskar have also been released, which are being highly appreciated by the audience in Uttarakhand and outside the state.
