Annapurna Studios

Annapurna Studios (Telugu: అన్నపూర్ణ స్టూడియోస్) is a leading Film & Television studio and production house located in Hyderabad, India. It was established in 1955 by the veteran Telugu actor Nageswara Rao Akkineni and the Studio was started in 1975. It provides various production facilities, including studio floors for set construction, outdoor sets, editing, dubbing and Digital Intermediate suites. The non-profit Annapurna International School of Film and Media is situated on the grounds of Annapurna Studios.

Foundation

Actor Nageswara Rao Akkineni had always wished to stay in Andhra Pradesh (now Telangana) as this is where his audience was. With the support of the government, he had bought land and developed the studio primarily to encourage the migration of the Telugu film industry from Chennai, Tamil Nadu to its homeland Hyderabad, Telangana. The studio was inaugurated by the then President of India Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed on 14 January 1976.

Annapurna Studios had witnessed the filming of numerous blockbusters for the past four decades. In 2011, Annapurna Studios had invested heavily in large-scale expansion of its studio facilities.

During Akkineni Nageswara Rao's final months, there had been a simmering dispute over the actual ownership of the studios between his two sons, Akkineni Venkat, a businessman and Akkineni Nagarjuna, movie star, causing him much distress. But it was learnt that the thespian actor ruled in favour of his younger, actor son since for a long time and more so lately, Nagarjuna had been looking after the day-to-day affairs of the studio and production house and made the same clear in his last and final will, putting to rest any speculation in the matter. With having adequately compensating his older son Venkat, the studio is now firmly under the leadership and ownership of its chairman, Akkineni Nagarjuna.

Studio floors and backlots

The first Studio floor at Annapurna was built in 1976 and spans an area of 11,000 sq ft. The second studio was built in 1978 and was dedicated to the workers who had made the construction of the studio possible. This was followed by the construction of two more studios spanning 10,000 sft each and several outdoor locations. The outdoor locations include a Manduva house (village house), police station, hospital set and several landscaped locations which were commonly used in many films and television shoots.

In 2011, Annapurna Studios had invested in building five new air-conditioned studios wherein the biggest studio spans an area of 14800 sq ft. This new facility features plush green rooms for artists & technicians, in-house 1520 KV generator capacity, catwalk grids for easy light settings, cyclorama/bluemat for special effects and inbuilt fire-fighting and detection systems. It also includes a 3000 sft space for dance rehearsals, photo-shoots and press-meets.^[1]

Within the first few months this new facility had catered to 35–40 high-budget Tollywood productions including Naayak, Gabbar Singh, Mirchi, Dammu, Julayi, Shadow, Baadshah, Greeku Veerudu and Iddarammayilatho. It also plays host to TV Commercial shoots for Malabar Gold, Mahindra Tractor, Joy Allukas, Jos Allukas, Kalyan Jewellers. Shooting of 3D & Reality Show projects is in the pipeline.

Annapurna studios is considered an auspicious place for film launches. With the new state-of-the art AC facilities, Annapurna has transformed into not only a film centr but a media and entertainment centr and is used for Audio launches, Television awards & corporate events as well. It is also the venue partner for the Hyderabad Metro Rail Brand Ambassadors Campaign.

Post-production

In 2011, Annapurna Studios had expanded its post-production facilities by adding two new Digital intermediate and edit suites. The DI suites house the state-of-the-art Baselight 4.3 DI System and India’s first Mistika 4K DI System. The DI Team has done extensive work on S. S. Rajamouli's national award winning 'Eega' and internationally acclaimed project Dream. It has also worked on Oosaravelli, Shirdi Sai, Rajanna, Routine Love Story among several others projects. Further support services include editing, dubbing, scanning and film recording.

Film production

Television production

Annapurna international school of film + media

Annapurna International School of Film and Media is the only privately managed, non-profit film and media school in India.^[7]

It is also the only film school in India with government-accredited bachelor's, master's and MBA courses in film related subjects. It is also one of the only schools that is situated within the premises of a leading Film Studio and hence serves as a practical learning centr for the students.

The school was launched in August 2011 by Actor & Chairman of Annapurna Studios, Dr. Nageswara Rao Akkineni and the Akkineni family with the intention of giving back to the community through their knowledge and experience in the field.

The industry has joined the school to support non-profit film education. The advisory board includes Shabana Azmi, Mahesh Bhatt, Farah Khan, Karan Johar, Javed Akhtar, Kamal Hassan, Tabu, Anurag Kashyap, Mani Ratnam, Gautham Menon, S. S. Rajamouli, Deva Katta and Krish.

Akkineni award gallery

The Akkineni Award Gallery houses the numerous awards that were received by the Chairman of Annapurna Studios, Dr. Akkineni Nageswara Rao. His list of awards include the Dada Saheb Phalke Award for his contribution to Indian Cinema, Padmavibhushan, Padmabhushan and Padmashree awards. The Gallery houses hundreds of mementos and artwork given by state-level, national and international organisations as a token of appreciation for his immense contribution to the world of cinema.

References

External links

• Annapurna Studios Official Website
• Annapurna Studios Official Facebook Page
• Annapurna International School of Film & Media Homepage