User:Aarem/Sand Box/doc

Usage

Most of the links provided in favour of the statement 'Kochi is the centre of film industry' is from media articles published in Kochi city page. The city articles cater to the local population in the city and would be obviously having glitters all around. Almost all these articles uses much superlative and peacock terms. Another point is that none of the provided citations states that Kochi is the ONLY hub/centre of the industry.

Malayalam Cinema is not centered ONLY in Kochi. Most of the production facilities are in Trivandrum. There is no studios with large campus for outdoor shooting facility in Kochi. If so, please provide citations.

60% of the films that are now released in Malayalam is being shot in Kochi and suburbs. But that alone does not make it to be called the centre of industry. If in that case, before 10 years, 60% of the films were shot in villages of Ottapalam and Pollachi. Can it be then declared as the centre of the industry? And location preferences always change.

The Cinema Capital - This media url claims that Trivandrum is the Cinema Capital. I would consider this also as a weasel word in an article in the local city page. This is in similar lines with the urls provided in favour of Kochi. So, I am relying on sources without any of these weasel terms.

Trivandrum is having the maximum number of studio facilities and production facilities. This includes:

• Chithranjali Studio Complex - (est.1980) with and indoor studio of around 12,000 sq.ft. (second largest indoor in Asia) with sound proof floor, and with an Outdoor campus of 70 acres. Pre built Out door of Police station, Hospital, Class room, Office rooms, Village houses, Temple, etc are available. Chitranjali studio has a single window system to obtain permission from the Government Departments and agencies for various locations for shooting. It has recording studios, preview theatre, four outdoor film units, reel printing facilities.[1]

There is not even a single studio to match this in Kochi.

• Prasad Studios and Colour Labs - The leading colour labs in South India has its facilities in Trivandrum. This is the only processing lab in Kerala. They are the pioneer in Digital processing and negative processing in South India. They are the leading colour lab in Graphics (VFX) and not only Malayalam films are processed in their facility in Trivandrum.[2]

• Merryland Studio - (est.1951) Possess a big outdoor campus facility of 36 acres. Established in 1951, this was the second film production studio in Malayalam film industry. Now it is mostly used for mega serials.[3]

• Accel Animation Studios – More known for its motion capture facilities and 3D graphics. One news article claims that it is the only such facility in India.[4]

• Vismayas Max – (est.2006) First DTS studio in Kerala. It has both animation facilities and regular film editing facilities. The sound recording unit of Vismaya is having a branch at Kochi too.

• Toonz Animation – Subsidiary of Singapore based Toonz company. Major works include Indian releases like Tenali Raman, Hanuman, etc and international releases like XMen and Wolverine, Gatturro etc.[5]

I am not going to list down each and every similiar facilities in Trivandrum, as it would be overwhelming. I believe the above citations are enough to prove that Trivandrum is having a good number of unique post production facilities in the state.

The address of actors published in the official website of AMMA(Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes), majority are given the address at Trivandrum as their permanent address.(addresses link) Even this association (AMMA) is headquartered in Thycaud, Trivandrum and not in Kochi.

The first Malayalam film was produced and screened in Trivandrum. The first film studio, The Travancore National Pictures, was established in Trivandrum. For details, please see Vigathakumaran and J. C. Daniel.

There are many companies in Kinfra Film and Video Park with full SEZ facilities for animation and gaming. There are hundreds of small studios in the city to support all the "serial" shooting and production for various TV channels. The citations can be fetched from the all internal links provided above. Thus, it is evident that Trivandrum has much more production facilities than any other city in Kerala.

The International Film Festival of Kerala is held in Trivandrum. Government organizations like Kerala State Film Development Corporation, Kerala State Chalachitra Academy, and non-gov organizations like Soorya etc are headquartered in Trivandrum.

I will now provide some citations from official government websites to check an impartial view on the facts.

1. Public Relation Department - States that In the 70s efforts were to create conditions conducive to the survival of artistic cinema in Kerala. A group of film enthusiasts had already formed a film society in Trivandrum, the first of its kind in the State. In the 70s, infrastructure facilities for film making in the state were augmented with the establishment of the state sponsored Chitranjali Studios. Aided by the subsidy scheme of the government and the inflow of 'gulf money' into film making, more films began to be made in Kerala. --> This is not talking about film industy concentrating only on Kochi, but stating that the industry returned to Kerala state.
2. Thiruvananthapuram Handbook from Department of Information and Public Relation - Page number 38 : Kerala State Film Development Corporation (KSFDC) has succeeded in uprooting the Malayalam film industry from Kodambakkam in Chennai and planting it here (Thiruvananthapuram). --> The word "here" implies Trivandrum, as this handbook is about Trivandrum.
3. Official site of the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation : Section- Film Industry - It states that Trivandrum is an important name in Malayalam film industry always. It also states that along with the post production facilities, establishments like C-DIT, Centre of Films, National Film Archive of India, National Film Development Corporation of India, Federation Offices of Film Societies, etc have made Trivandrum a 'FILM CITY'.

• Here is another link which states Trivandrum is the centre of the malayalam film industry.[6] It is also stated that the city handles more than half of the post production works today.

So in short, the movie industry in Kerala is not centred only in one location. Major facilities are in Trivandrum followed by Kochi. So to be impartial, no one can say that Malayalam movie industry is only centered in Kochi. Infact, it is scattered across Kerala with more presence in Trivandrum and Kochi.

The current statement is the article is as follows : " Malayalam film industry returned and established itself in Kerala with a major chunk of locations, studios, production and post-production facilities in Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi." This is giving a Neutral view without adding adjectives or emphasising on any city. More over, there is no official status like "centre of film industry". Cheers, -- Aarem ^(Talk) 08:51, 9 April 2013 (UTC)