Dubai Studio City to have Bollywood studios as their W Asia base

Dubai, Feb 28 (UNI) Dubai Studio City, a cluster dedicated to film-making facilities, is in the process of negotiating with Bollywood studios to serve as their West Asia base of operations, sources said.

Amina Al Rostamani, executive director of media for Tecom Investments, the owner of Dubai Studio City, said the zone is currently courting major studio houses to attract more feature films to be shot in the UAE.

After the master development was first created in February 2005, it is now about to welcome the first round of tenants moving into boutique offices geared specially for broadcasters and production companies.

''For the first two years we focused on planning, and now 50 per cent of the infrastructure has been completed,'' Al Rostamani was quoted as saying to Gulf News.

The free zone has found tenants for 12 out of 18 boutique offices, which will be ready this May.

''It's doing very well and we're now thinking of the second phase,'' she said of the project, which has aspirations to make Dubai the film hub of West Asia and North Africa.

An ambitious project envisaging 22-million square feet of commercial and industrial space for film production and related activities, Dubai Studio City will take several years to be fully completed.

UNI