Boney Kapoor's Bayview Projects LLP and Bhutani Group have won the bid to jointly develop the Film City project near Noida Airport. The project aims to create an integrated media infrastructure for the movie business value chain. Bayview secured the win with an 18% revenue-sharing offer to the UP government, beating competitors like T-Series, Akshay Kumar-backed Super Technobuild, and KC Bokadia's 4 Lions Films. With a moratorium of eight years, the developer will start paying 18% of gross revenue from the ninth year. The Film City, planned on 1000 acres, will include commercial and industrial zones, linked to Jewar Airport for enhanced connectivity. The project, valued at INR 1,510 crore, is expected to be completed in eight years, with a focus on incorporating advanced technologies for contemporary cinema.
Film-maker Boney Kapoor's Bayview Projects LLP and Bhutani Group have secured the rights to jointly develop the Film City project in Sector 21, near Noida airport at Jewar. The objective of the project is to provide an integrated media infrastructure for the movie business value chain.
There were three other key players in the bid - T-Series and two consortiums backed by actor Akshay Kumar (Super Technobuild) and producer KC Bokadia (4 Lions Films). But Bayview turned out to be the winner with an 18% revenue sharing offer to the UP government. While 4 Lions offered 15.1%, Supersonic quoted 10.8% and Super Cassettes Industries (T Series) 5.3%.
With a moratorium period of eight years, the developer will start paying the Yamuna Expressway Authority 18% of its gross revenue from the ninth year.
Boney Kapoor's Bayview Projects LLP, which holds a 48% stake in the consortium, will handle the operations and maintenance of the project. Parmesh Construction Company Ltd, which is owned by Prem and Ashish Bhutani and has 26% share in the consortium, will be responsible for the finances. Similarly, Noida Cyberpark Pvt Ltd, with 26% share, will offer technical support.
The Film City is planned on 1000 acres of which 220 acres is for commercial use and 780 acres for industrial purposes. The initial phase will cover 230 acres.
The proposed land is located at Sector 21 on Yamuna expressway, four km from Jewar Airport. To enhance connectivity, YEIDA is linking the airport with the Delhi-Mumbai expressway. There will also be a bullet train operating between New Delhi and Varanasi, while pod taxis will connect the airport and the proposed film city.
The Expressway Authority will have six months to hand over the land. The concessionaire will have an equal time frame to initiate construction. The studio and the film institute are expected to be ready in three years, while the entire project will take eight years to complete.
Global tenders for the project were floated twice in 2021 and 2022, but no company came forward for developing the project, which involved a high cost of INR 7,200 crore. Subsequently, the project plan was changed, the size reduced and the concession period extended to 90 years to make it more feasible. A third tender was floated on September 30 2023, with the cost of the project cut to INR 1,510 crore. After four extensions of this deadline, the final date for submitting bids ended on January 5, when Bayview and the others came forward.
Arun Vir Singh, the Yamuna Expressway Authority's CEO, said the company's financial bids would be placed before the PPP bid-evaluation committee and the committee of secretaries for approval. Subsequently, the cabinet will go through them as well. The bidder will then be issued 'the letter of award' for the project.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath had said the government is well aware of the trend of OTT and media streaming platforms and has planned a high-capacity data centre along with all pre-production and the post-production infrastructure, processing labs, VFX and digital technology of international level.
Kapoor said it was a dream come true for him to own a film studio and said that UP will soon become a hub of filmmaking. Ali Ram Chatley, the COO of Bhutani Infra, said youths from UP who would earlier travel to Mumbai to work in the film industry could look for opportunities closer home. He also said that the focus would be to incorporate advanced technologies in the studio for contemporary cinema.
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