Nitish says film city project in Bihar was 'very much alive'

Publicly acknowledging his good relationship with BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today said Sinha's proposal of setting up a film city at Rajgir is "very much alive" and being processed.

"I had 1-2 rounds of talks with him (Sinha) also on film city proposal. Officials have also deliberated on the project," Kumar told reporters in reply to a question.

"The film city project is very much alive," he said.

Sinha, the BJP Lok Sabha member from Patna Sahib, who of late has been seen sulking in his party, had met Kumar and also RJD President Lalu Prasad several times which had left his party embarrassed.
 

The Bihar CM, who had last year launched the book "Anything but Khamosh", a biography of Sinha popularly known as "Bihari Babu", has also on many occasions showered praise on him describing the actor-turned politician as "pride of Bihar."

Reacting to Kumar's warm response to the film city project, the Bollywood actor, said "I highly appreciate warm response of 'friend and CM' Nitish Kumar."

Sinha, who has acted in over 200 Hindi movies and also done a number of movies in Bengali and Punjabi languages, said the "film city project was submitted to Bihar government by me directly (in 2006)."

"The proposed film city will not only promote art and culture of Bihar but also boost employment through tourism," Sinha told PTI over phone.

The film city would greatly benefit not only Bihar but the entire Northern region, the actor of many a hit movies like "Kalicharan", "Vishwanath", "Dostana", "Kala Pathar" and "Shaan" among others, said.

"The project is slowly but surely going in the right direction," Sinha said.

Born in Patna, the 70 year old actor-politician said, "the project would be my humble contribution to my home state.