Ok Day 2 of site seeing was Ramoji Film City. I tried going 2 other times before and people cancelled. Lesson learned If you want to do it do it regardless if anyone else will do it with you. Yes Ramoji would be more fun if I went with friends but in light of the situation I am glad I went alone and tacked myself to a tour company to drive me there and back for by bus it would be over 3 hours in local traffic and with all the transfers.
So This time I left later and called the bus driver at 7 this time I opted to walk to Miyapur instead of taking the bus in order to kill time so my wait time was 15 minutes. We picked up everyone else along the way and changed drivers and conductor. When we reached Ramoji we all paid our entrance fees then the bus took us up to the main area. I went to all the shows but sadly did not take pictures or videos for my phone died within an hour of getting to Ramoji. The first show was not great for there were mistakes and only one person looked excited and happy to be on stage.
The second show was Wild West meets Kung Fu with the fight scenes and gun slinging. All in all it was much better than the 1st show. The theater was bigger. There wasn't much to see at the stunt show because the wild west area was getting a face lift. After the wild west it was off to an Indian themed show which was great. Different dance styles from across India, a hoop lady and basketball stunt were closed out by a unifying India performance. Ok I got unity from the brief intro that was in English that everyone well except me is Indian at the end of the day though they may be from different regions or religions.
Then it was off to Hollywood were there was a 4 D ride that reminded me of Hollywood House of Terror (The ride in Universal Studies) Ok I don't remember the ride since I was young when I went but I remember the picture. From there it was off to a train ride across the world going through the different cultures. I think Latin America was left out. The continental restaurant was modeled after a drive in and my budget conscious self went with a non veg burger that I took all the sesame seeds off. Afterwards it was off to the final show that was lights, camera action. It was a great show. I must note that at every show people started walking out as the show was ending. One family kept running of to the next thing as if they would be left behind.
I went to the movie making session which showed a video on the history of Ramoji which may I note is the world's largest film studio. There were metal bars indicating form a line which is laughable in a country where a line is disregarded. This session had multiple rooms. First was the welcome where two people were chosen to star in the movie. Well the lady was the star and the guy was the unseen costar. Then came filming where the guy was meant to bounce the carriage and the lady was in the carriage. It was supposed to be action but the lady couldn't keep a straight face and kept laughing as the screen behind her showed she was being chased.
Next came sound and how sound effects are added. Kids where brought to the stage as mini technicians to add sound effects to the movie. The final room was the premier of the movie.
From there I went on a tour which was entirely in Hindi which wasn't a problem. We got to go into some of the sets and see how some buildings had multiple purposes. Then we went to the different gardens. I am so glad I went to Ramoji. The tour lasted long enough that I only had an hour to kill before the bus left and got to see the entire studio.The bird area was great with birds from around the world. The butterfly garden was pretty full of colorful flowers and butterflies. It would have been nice if the tour was dubbed in English but I still enjoyed the tour just not being asked to take pictures.
O best convo of the day was why I don't like pictures and if I speak Hindi.
Ok I took this picture because I had never seen a sign like it before. I understand there are squat toilets and have used them before. What I didn't know is that some people use western toilets the same way you would use a squat toilet.
