Noida film city will be world's best, says Ashish Bhutani

Noida: The proposed international film city near Noida airport will be the best in the world with several global-first features, real estate developer Bhutani Group CEO Ashish Bhutani said on Wednesday.

Bhutani Group is part of Bayview Projects which was on Tuesday selected as the concessionaire for developing the greenfield project along the Yamuna Expressway in a public-private partnership (PPP) with the Uttar Pradesh government.

Bayview Projects, which will operate and maintain the film city, is backed by ace filmmaker Boney Kapoor and has Parmesh Construction Company along with Noida Cyberpark as consortium members for financial and technical roles, respectively.

The project is going to be worth "thousands of crore", Bhutani said.

"This will be the best film city in the world and that is a Bhutani promise. This is something I mentioned during the presentation to the UP government. There will be the best technology, best studios, shopping centres and tourism spots. Several things which will not only be the best but also the first in the world will come up here," Bhutani told PTI.

On collaborating with Kapoor, he said the veteran filmmaker brings on board expertise of cinema making and they would be working as equal partners in building and then operating the film city.

"Boney Kapoor is a veteran in the film industry. He has several artists in his family itself. He brings along expertise in making dozens of films himself. He will bring immense expertise to the project," Bhutani said.

"Making a film city and then operating it later are two different aspects. We needed somebody of that calibre and category to come on board not only as a performer but also to guide us in all aspects," he said.

"It is not that somebody would work less or someone would work more in this partnership. It is going to be equally hard work for all of us. We will propel this project equally together," he added.

This is going to be the first PPP project for Bhutani Group, a premium real estate developer which has recently also announced expanding out of Delhi National Capital Region for the first time with projects in Lucknow, Ludhiana, Haridwar and Goa.

"I am very, very excited about this. When the first project in itself is going to be worth thousands of crore, I am sure there will be a lot for us to learn," Bhutani said.

Bayview Projects clinched the deal by offering the highest revenue share of 18 per cent to the state government for the project, according to the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA).

Bayview Projects was competing against Super Cassettes Industries Private Limited (T-series), Supersonic Technobuild Private Limited (backed by film star Akshay Kumar, Maddock Films, and others), and 4 Lions Films Private Limited (backed by filmmaker K C Bokadia and others) to develop the film city, considered a pet project of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

The second highest revenue share of 15.12 per cent was offered by 4 Lions Films, followed by 10.80 per cent by Supersonic Technobuild while T-Series offered the lowest share of 5.27 per cent, the YEIDA said.

The film city will be built on over 1,000 acres (230 acres in the first phase) in Sector 21 of YEIDA along the Yamuna Expressway.

The latest tender floated in September last year came for the third time for the project. A global tender was floated on November 23, 2021, for the first time and then on July 11, 2022, but no investor expressed interest in the earlier two tenders.