Tollywood’s tryst with U’khand

Tribune News Service 

Dehradun, June 18 

Following in the footsteps of the Hindi film directors, crew and caste of a Telugu film started shooting a movie in Dehradun on Monday. 

The shooting, under the banner of SVC Productions 30, commenced at a local school here. The untitled film has southern superstar Mohan Babu and Pooja Hegde in the lead roles. 

Chief Minister TS Rawat gave the ‘mahurat’ shot for the Telugu film. Notably, within a span of six months, shooting of around seven films have taken place in Uttarakhand. 

The shooting of the film will continue for a period of three days at the Summer Valley School and later the film unit will move to the Forest Research Institute (FRI) where the shooting will commence from June 22. Mahesh Babu is reported to be among the highest paid actors in the South Indian film industry.

Dr Rathi Shankar Tripathi, line producer of the film, said a college set would be created for filming the scenes. He said Pooja would play the role of a college student. 

He said the Rs 125-crore film was the first big budget film to be shot in Uttarakhand.

While Ajay Devgun starrer ‘Shivaay’, which was also shot in Uttarakhand, is said to have been made at a cost of Rs 80 crore. 

The Uttarakhand Government is hopeful that film producers from all over the country and abroad will boost the tourism industry in the state.