“D ay 2 – Ramoji Film City.
The day began earnestly. Kiran after his usual morning reached back to the hotel. To his utter dismay, few were so deep asleep, left to themselves, they would be lazing around in bed the whole day. A monologue escaped. ‘We will be missing Ramoji guys, better we take rest in the room itself.’ Half hearing this, the guys labored into their respective morning chores. After due deliberations, it was decided to book through the same Taxi driver who took us around for sightseeing yesterday.
Breakfast was at the hotel. And by 9:30 am we were dressed for the occasion. The unchartered waters of Ramoji Film City were waiting to be explored. We were excited to get the day started.
The Taxi driver convinced us to purchase the tickets at Rs. 1,650 per head on the way, with his incongruous agent, to avoid waiting in the long queues at Ramoji. This would dramatically shorten the wait time. We obliged. The commission difference was negligible. After traversing though the city and some more towards the Vijaywada highway, we duly arrived at Ramoji Film City by 11:00 am. A massive signage signals the grand location. It is the largest film studio complex in the world, spread across an astonishingly vast area.
Once we reached the parking lot, we followed our driver to a nearby kiosk to get our tickets. He was spot on. The place was packed with tourists, locals, and school children. Being a weekend, it was more crowded than usual. The long serpentine queue at the ticket counter made us thank our driver for suggesting to buy the ticket with his agent.
With a bit of push and shove at the ticket gate, we made our way through the ticket checking counter. We took the designated bus, which takes you to the main base or the entrance to the Film City. The bus ride takes about 10 minutes. Along the way, you pass through barren terrains aplenty, followed by few hotels, probably meant for the guests and film fraternities.
At the main entrance, we quickly usher into another queue. An uber cool red bus, with an open top for the driver, picks us up. The actual tour of Ramoji Film city begins now. The commentator greeted us. There would be various stops, at each place, we are to deboard the bus, see the place and hop on the next bus. The sequence would continue till the final stop, which would then drop us back to the main entrance.
Along the way we were shown the Central jail, hospital, police station, gardens, all being used in famous Bollywood and regional movies, which our team seemed to know. The first stop is the grand jury or the central darbar of the Mahabharata. The statues, the palatial palace, give you the look and feel of being inside a royal darbar. We took the next bus. Next stop was the Railway station. A actual train was placed at a make shift station. Seemingly the movie, Chennai Express was shot here. It was mighty surprise to see a movie choreographer showing his dance moves and the crowd promptly joined in. We all joined in. Bollywood tracks were being played at full blast and the choreographer led the flash mob into frenzied dance sequences. The crowd enjoyed thoroughly.
The next bus took us to the magnificent movie sets of Bahubali. All the mannequins, statues, chariots, bulls that were used in the movie sets, are placed. The larger-than-life size statues draw collective gasps from the onlookers. The statues are intimidating. There is also a throne, which had a beeline for photographs. Our group, just like all the tourists, indulged in infinite photographs. Sanit, especially, is bit of a selfie junkie, who loves standing throbbing pic of himself in various styles.
There is also a restaurant near the Bahubali sets. The prices are exorbitant. You would come to expect as much in such a tourist place. However, what is also disappointing is that even the mineral water bottle costs nearly thrice as much as the retail price. There is no arguing, as the higher MRP is printed on these bottles. Ironically, the place is also a cash cow.
The next stop led us to the Japanese gardens, the ubiquitous Hawa mahal blended in with Mysore palace. By this time, the sun was out and we were well and truly exhausted. But we were only half way through. After gorging on sandwiches and juices, we moved on to the next tourist places. A Buddhist cave and then to a bird sanctuary. Few of us took liking to the various birds seen upclose and personal. As we could not identify the birds properly, Abhijeet inquired the same with a nearby attendant, who seemed eager to impart the knowledge onto us.
“What is this bird called” Abhijeet asked innocently, pointing to a crane like bird.
“It is called the red-haired crane” swiftly came the reply as she moved closer to our group.
“This one look beautiful and elegant. Which is this one?” Asked Kiran, pointing to a Black bodied bird, with colorful features on its face and wings.
“It is Winged peacock”
“And which one is this?” asked Sanit pointing to a bird with a protruding bosom.
Almost instantaneously, Mayur responded and mocked “Donald Duck, Donald Duck”. The attendant turned on her heels and disappeared from the scene. Mortified we quickly made our way out of the place. A scene, that still evokes shards of laughter whenever we discuss amongst us.
The next stop led us to the moving making scenes. This was an informative session. The host explained and showcased, using volunteers, as to how the movie scenes are created, sounds and VFX added to arrive at a full-fledged movie scene. It sure was an interesting gathering.
We next moved to one of the most non-miss able shows at Ramoji. The effervescent Wild Wild West show. The stage show follows a dainty sequence straight from the American Texas Cowboy styles. It enraptures the audience attention with its fast fight sequence, gun shots, acrobatic jumps, punctuated with comic scenes. A 30-minute show that spell binds and keep you wanting for more. A mesmerizing display that sums up the spirit of Ramoji.
As the day winds down, we come full circle and reach back to the main entrance. Here there are multiple kiosks offering tea and snacks. There are plenty of joy rides that needs to be paid for, which the tourists can take advantage of. Usually, the film city closes off at 6:00pm.
However, as part of a special occasion there was a Winter Carnival festival. The ground was lit up with hypnotic lights and a stupendous dance show by a group of dancers strutting to various Bollywood, Tollywood and Kollywood songs. To ice the cake, there was short and sweet Carnival parade, that kept the audience mesmerized and enthralled. It was finally time to leave this awesome place, for all its worth, it single handedly made the Hyderabad trip a resounding success.
We sat in our vehicle to be dropped back to our hotel. Stomachs growled in unision.
“Yaar, khana pack karke room pe leke ate hai. Let us get along few drinks as well.” Abhijeet suggested helpingly.
Mayur, who was at the front seat, next to the driver, turned around, “Nahi yaar. Kal bhi room pe khaya tha, aaj nahi? Aaram se kisi restaurant mein khayenge.”
On the back seat, Kamlesh nudged Abhijeet in astonishment, “Are, kya re, yeh to restaurant mein khane ke liye bol raha hai.”.
“Mayur, yaar, aaram se apne room pe khayenge, cards bhi khelenge. Bahut maza ayega.” Reasoned Abhijeet.
“Arre, Room pe itna uncomfortable, chote chote plate leke baitna kya maza hai usme.” Mayur’s frenzied voice boomed through the vehicle.
Kamlesh, once again nudged Abhijeet, with laded innocence “Arre, kya re, khana khan eke baad drink piyenge re? Aisa karenge re?”
An undecided silence ensued in the vehicle so much so that even the engines whining could be heard.
Suddenly from the back of the vehicle, Sanit, who had been silent right until this point with headphones plugged into his ears, blurted, “Mayur, Abhijeetak before dinner pivunk jay khay ani Kamleshak after dinner jay khay.”
Everyone including the driver burst out into a stuporous laughter..
We finally arrived at our hotel. Obviously, it had been decided that we would be having dinner at a restaurant. To mix things up, we searched for a hotel and our eyes went to an Arabian dine in.
As we entered, it surprised us to see that it was nothing like a typical restaurant. Practically, there were just 2 table with chairs, while the rest of the area had been converted into sit-out with blankets laid on the floor. A typical Arabic styled hotel. Further surprises awaited us. The hotel served what they called as the Mandi thali. It comprised of 1 big plate full of Biryani rice, with 2 massive sized chicken leg pieces. The portion easily served for 2-3 people. And that what the patrons did. At every sit out, there were groups, who ate from the same plate, sharing the dine-in space. It was an unbelievable sight, which literally took our breath away. We almost waltzed through the door, until Mayur decided to check with the waiter, if dinner can be served in separate plates. Astonishingly, he had to check with the manager, to ascertain if our request was allowed. He finally relented. Food was sumptuous. Except Sanit, who was following veg Saturday, we all had our fill.
Once back at our hotel, everybody freshened up. Another round of cards played long into the night. Apparently, no one wanted the day to end. The final day now beckoned of this whirl winding trip.
The final day was planned to be a leisure day out into the city. We would start late, check out of the hotel, carry our luggage’s through the day and board the train back to Goa at 9:00 pm at night.
As usual, after multiple visits by Sanit to the bathroom, and breakfast at the hotel, we managed to check out by 10.30 am. A bolt stop at the famous Karachi bakery outlet offering the delicious Karachi biscuits and plenty of other assortments only added more weight to our luggage.
Our stop was at the Salar Jung museum, one of the largest antique, historical museums in India. The place is thronged by tourists and takes a good part of 2 hours to cover the entire museum in its entirety. For history lovers, this place is magical and could hold you awestruck with its maleficent antique collection. Of course, there is plenty of walking to do and there were bets thrown around in the group, as to who would give up first. By the end of the visit, it was a case of who was the last man standing.
Post lunch, we briefly visited the GSK mall. And after 3 frantic days, we were finally ready to head home. We boarded the Goa bound train at 9:00 pm. It certainly would be a long 18-hour journey; we were slated to reach Margao next day by 3:00 pm incase the train was on time. Night would flyby, while we dreaded the next day, as it was going to be a full day travel.
We slept blissfully, what with the tiring legs roaming around the city all day. As the sun rose among the Deccan plateau, we inched ever so closer back home.
To pass time, we started off with the Card games. We had pretty much the entire compartment with us as well as the full day ahead. Abhijeet took the lead in the card games as he is the most well versed one. Amongst the numerous games we played, there was teen patti, 108, challenge, chess etc. It helped superbly to pass off the time. Unfortunately, the train was not making any great progress. To our dejection, we realized it was running atlesat 2 hours behind schedule. As lunch time crawled, there was no pantry in the train. Finally, at a junction we all bought and gorged upon the bhelpuri as if it was the last food on earth.
Post the card games, the group sat down to play ‘dumb charades. Certainly, the most hilarious and memorable times we had. For the rest of the journey, till we arrived back in Goa, we continued playing this game.
Finally, the train touched Goa station at 4.30 pm, an arduous journey of nearly 20 hours. The trip was filed with fun times, colorful memories and a bachelor trip to be cherished for lifetime.
