Tinsel Times In Andhra

Naidu offers big sops to Telugu film industry to make Vizag its new hub

- Amarnath K. Menon

Nara Chandrababu Naidu is intent on luring the Telugu film industry from its present hub in Hyderabad to the port city of Visakhapatnam in his state Andhra Pradesh. The chief minister, who much like his father-in-law N.T. Rama Rao, lured the Telugu industry to move from Chennai to Hyderabad in the 1980s, is offering filmmakers extraordinary incentives.

Naidu’s offer: no entertainment tax on movies with budgets under Rs 4 crore; zero charge for shooting at most locations in the state; single window for clearances and permissions to film; subsidies from the Andhra Pradesh Film Television and Theatre Development Corporation; and priority allotment of land at reduced rates to set up studios. The government has set aside 350 acres outside Visakhapatnam for this.