BOLLYWOOD TOURS IN MUMBAI
No, Bollywood is not an actual place geographically, although it is now more than ever recognized for what it is, a style of the film. Bollywood, India’s national movie industry, also known as Hindi cinema, derives its name from the location synonymous with America’s movie industry, Hollywood. The B represents Bombay (now Mumbai) in India. With its beginnings in the 1970s, India’s movie industry is now among the country’s most profitable industries, surpassing even Hollywood in films produced and audience attendance.
MUMBAI FILM CITY
“Excellence is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well,” the words of Dadasaheb Phalke, the father of the Indian film industry, perfectly epitomize the Indian film industry it describes. Film City, renamed Dadasaheb Phalke Nagar, is the integrated film studio complex, tucked unobtrusively away very near the secluded Aarey Colony in Goregaon, Mumbai. The 520 acres of visual perfection house gardens, theatres, lakes, recording rooms, mountains, houses, courtrooms, picnic spots, prisons, cities, villages, and grounds are facilitating indoor and outdoor Bollywood film shootings. Visitors can get a visual concept of the shooting of films in India through the twenty indoor studios.
BOLLYWOOD TOURS
With Mumbai Film City Tours visitors can get the opportunity to watch a live shoot on set, complete with retakes, famous Bollywood actors and actresses, and the sights and sounds of the Indian movie industry up close and personal. If you’re lucky enough to catch a tour while an accessible movie shoot is being captured, all the better! Catch the behind the scenes moments and all that happens in front of and for the camera to gain a unique insight into the mesmerizing world of Bollywood and the magic of film making. Mumbai Film City Tours is a two-hour guided bus tour offered in conjunction with the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation. At the risk of dashing the hopes of those expecting to meet the Bollywood stars, tourists are to remain on the tour bus for the duration of the tour through the filming locations. Tours are conducted every day between 9 am and 4.30pm.
The Dream Tour is a two-hour interactive experience focusing on behind the scenes and post-production. Tourists get a firsthand encounter of the dubbing studio and singing studio during which an opportunity exists to personally dub a favorite Bollywood scene or sing a beloved Bollywood song. A twenty-minute screening in the Tourist Lounge shows the history of Bollywood. The Foley Sound Experience brings to life the sounds used in Bollywood movies, such as thunderstorms and lightning. With three tours every day, the sky’s the limit to live your Bollywood dream!
Why choose? With the Cost Saver Combination Tour, you can experience Bollywood tours Mumbai in full, with both the Film City Tour and the Dream Tour. Life is all about choices, and you won’t want to have to live yours regretting not having the opportunity to fully immerse yourself in the full experience that is Bollywood! Why limit yourself when you can have it all?
The Live Show Tour is a 1 ½ hour experience of how a shoot is conducted. Visitors get to visit a well-known TV set during live filming to see the specially created studio and witness technicians bringing it to reality. An in-depth and unique look into the behind-the-scenes world of creating and directing a TV series, editing, camera framing, set and property management, and lighting are just some of the inside info explained. Includes a peek into the makeup rooms of those actors who are kind enough to grant access and even a photograph with a star of the series.
The Half Day Bollywood Tour lets you experience both the Mumbai Film City Tour and the Live Show Tour, as well as being treated to a lunch, all-inclusive. The tour is between 4 and 5 hours, with 4 morning slots and 5 afternoon slots to choose from.
The Full Day Bollywood Tour includes lunch and seven to eight hours of immersion in the history, excitement, creativity, and technicalities that is Bollywood. Visit the set, learn about all that happens behind the scenes, how visual effects are used, witness a live shoot, and perhaps visit a makeup room, or get to meet a Bollywood star or starlet. But that is not all. On weekday tours, the Move for Dance Show brings a combination of folk Indian traditional and formal music and dance traditions meshed with Middle Eastern techniques based on the music and dances from Bollywood films. Visit a second movie studio before taking a drive past the homes of famous Bollywood stars to end off the day. On Saturdays and Sundays, visitors are treated to the 120-minute mega show, incorporating the magical Bollywood theme show. The theme of the show changes, but it always includes dancing, acting, and entertainment. Voice modulation and singing acts, dance performances, storytelling, and a Bulbul Pandey bring Bollywood alive. The audience gets to dance on stage before continuing to enjoy more of what the tour has to offer.
Adlabs Imagica is more than just a theme park; it’s an experience extraordinaire! Bollywood Tours India now brings you world-class theme parks. Imagica Adlabs is an amusement park near Mumbai on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway that offers entertainment, a hotel, water park, shopping, action, dining, and fun activities for one and all. Snow Park brings you thousands of feet of real, pure snow to enjoy any time of the year. House of Stars gives you the opportunity to meet iconic Bollywood stars, and recreate movie scenes with real Bollywood props. Glowmagica and Eyelusion are visual spectacles that will intrigue and amaze. Hotel Novotel Imagica is the hotel on the premises, with world-class amenities and full access to all the parks, have to offer.
FILM CITIES IN OTHER LOCATIONS
Bollywood and Tollywood studios and film cities are not just in Mumbai. Ramoji Film City is well worth a visit to Hyderabad. MGR film city in Taramani, Chennai is an integrated film studio complex.
The Film City in Noida is 100 acres of productivity and beauty. It is here that Bollywood films and TV programs are filmed, and it is the location of corporate offices and headquarters for Satellite Channels locally.
HOW TO BE A BOLLYWOOD EXTRA
It may not be all glamour and loads of cash pushed into your hands, but it will definitely be an experience worth having if you get the chance. As a Westerner, your chances are already exponentially better. Scouts and casting agents prowl the Gateway of India, Colaba Causeway, Salvation Army Red Shield Hostel and Leopald Café to find eager Bollywood extras. Bollywood dancers are in great demand as extras for Bollywood movies, so if you have the moves and the credentials, your chances are really good of getting an extra dancing role.
If you are approached be sure to ask for the casting agent’s proof of ID before you take the bait. If you think you’re going to pay for your stay in India with the money you earn as a Bollywood extra, then you’re going to be really disappointed, but you will probably be fed. With Indian visa Online’s help to get your visa, you can enjoy the Bollywood tours in India.
