The state Tourism department and Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation are all set to release ‘Filmi Escapes in Karnataka’, a ‘Film Tourism Guide’ on movies, culture and locations, researched and written by a Mysurean.
Shruti Indira Lakshminarayana, a media person and writer, with interest in cinema and lifestyle, has researched and written the book for the state Tourism department and KSTDC, through Lonely Planet India.
Daughter of retired professor R Indira and former secretary of NIE management committee S K Lakshminarayana, Shruti holds a PhD in Mass Communication. She is married to actor-director M G Srinivas, popular as Sreeni, and runs SIL Studio, a video production house. Her next book ‘Pinnacle of Humanity’ revolves around Mahamastakabhisheka of Shravanabelagola.
‘Filmi Escapes in Karnataka’ connects not only Kannada films, but also of other languages, including Hindi and Tamil, with tourist destinations. Shruti said that Lonely Planet India has published similar guides in other states also, in association with their respective Tourism departments. “The guide gives a new twist to tourist destinations, by tracing their depiction and representation in popular movies. A lot of research and hard work has gone into it,” she said.
Tourism department officials said, “The guide has been already uploaded on the department website and even booklets have been printed. It will be formally released soon.”
The guide has a foreword by actor Shivarajkumar. His words “Travel inspires movies, and movies inspire travel” bring out the inter-relation between travel and movies.
The 64-page guide has sections such as Bengaluru, Mysuru and around; Coorg, Chikkamagaluru and Hassan; and Best of Karnataka. Thus, a major portion of it deals with Mysuru and its surroundings.
The guide projects the tourist destinations as locations for outdoor shooting of movies — past, present and future.
It lists the movies and actors of all languages already shot in these locations; their significance in the movies; emotional attachment of actors like Rajinikanth with locations in Mysuru and Mandya districts; accommodation choices; eateries and their specialities; favourite food of actors and directors from these locations; expert recommendation on food by actors like Shraddha Srinath and Sruthi Hariharan.
The guide is available at https://www.kstdc.co/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Filmi_Hi_RES_compressed.pdf.