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UP Govt Discussed India's 'Biggest Film City' In A Meeting Minus Bollywood's Biggest Producers

Singers Udit Narayan and Anup Jalota were part of Adityanath's event to discuss a proposed 1,000-acre Film City in UP, but most big filmmakers were missing.
A file photo of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
Hindustan Times via Getty Images
A file photo of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

On Tuesday afternoon, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath held a meeting with people from the Indian film industry to discuss a proposed new Film City in the state.

According to a list accessed by HuffPost India, almost none of the major stakeholders from Bollywood or other Indian film industries were part of the meeting held to discuss what the Adityanath government envisions as the biggest film city in India.

The Yamuna Expressway authority has already sent a proposal to the state government for the project over 1,000 acres in Sector 21.

Big names from Bollywood, such as Aditya Chopra, Siddharth Roy Kapur, Karan Johar, Anushka Sharma, Ritesh Sidhwani, Anubhav Sinha, Ekta Kapoor and Shah Rukh Khan, all of whom run their own production companies and are major stakeholders in the production of films, ad shoots, TV shows and web series, weren’t part of the conversation.

Sinha confirmed to HuffPost India that he didn’t receive an invitation. HuffPost India has reached out to some of the others as well and will update this story once they respond.

Bhushan Kumar, managing director of T-Series, was an exception. Tamil superstar Rajinikanth’s daughter Soundarya, a filmmaker, and director David Dhawan were also among the invitees. Many of the invitees are perceived to be close to the present dispensation: director Vivek Agnihotri, Ashoke Pandit, actor and former CBFC chairperson Anupam Kher, singer Kailash Kher etc.

The Narendra Modi biopic producer Sandeep Ssingh, whose name had cropped up in the Sushant Singh Rajput case, was also invited for the event.

In a video that has now been circulated widely on Twitter, singer Udit Narayan stood up during the meeting and sang a version of Mitwa from Lagaan, praising Adityanath. Some pointed out that singing in an air-conditioned enclosure was a major health risk given the ongoing pandemic.

Here’s the list of people to whom the UP government sent an invite. A source confirmed to HuffPost India that this was the final list of invitees:

List of invitees
List of invitees
List of invitees
List of invitees
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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.