Innovative Film City

For those going to Wonder La there is a second amusement park close by called the Innovative Film City which is also worth visiting. My driver had heard of Wonder La but knew nothing about this park so a sign that it clearly wasn't going to be as popular. (I love it when I know more about a place than a local)

This park clearly inspired by the Universal Studios parks has an amazing entrance, and when paying I was told that today was very quiet. I think I'd soon come to realise that they must say that a lot.

Mummified teddy bears just inside the entrance.

The main entrance was a descent down a number of small attractions such as sets, museums, rifle ranges and a range of tacky gift shops, none of which sold any branded merchandise.

The presentation of the park was OK, but there was an overwhelming feeling that they had invested a lot of money but not got the return and some of it was being maintained anymore.

If the photos are making the place look impressive then I apologise, I guess I was choosing my shots.

Now the Magic Show was by far the highlight of the park, and one of my favourite bits of the trip. I wish I had taken some better photos of this as I thought it was just another poor display similar to that seen in Chennai but later in the day the magician came up to me and asked if I wanted to see some "Real Rajasthani" magic and I got a personal show that just blew me away. With just a simple bag of props this magician did some stunning slight of hand that I couldn't keep up with. He asked me to name a flower then made my hand smell of it, brought two small cannonballs up from his stomach (I got a close up of them coming up his windpipe and into his mouth) and a stunning finale with some pigeons, and of course there was the Indian version of cups and balls. Now I know how a lot of these are usually done but this was done so well that I was genuinely befuddled and left in a confused state after.

My response was much like this kid.

Turning left at the end of the main entrance descent and heading past the attractions there you reach The Cartoon City section of the park which is where the amusement park can be found.

A really well themed elephant takes pride of place on the carousel.

The park has a single rollercoaster, a standard rollerskater that despite looking very faded due to the sun, ran pretty well. The ride operator was more than happy to let me ride alone and have a couple of goes on it.

Elsewhere in the park there's a dinosaur walkthrough and fossil museum both of which were of a pretty high quality. This didn't fit with the overall feeling I was getting from the park. Something wasn't right. It was like it was a huge idea that never got the public or had been abandoned but was still being run. A ghost town like theme park, or some sort of financial wrong doing. I couldn't tell.

The park has a Ripley's attraction within it which I decided to spend about half an hour walking through taking the time to see the attractions, which are very similar as those seen elsewhere. I felt a bit sad at the two-way mirror piece thinking that it probably doesn't get enough throughput for it to work.

A really impressive ivory carving. 

In the centre of the park is a haunted walkthrough.

This was generally scary on account of it being full of weird stuff I'd never seen before, and being really dimly lit to the point I had to use my iphone torch to find my way around and provide me with some comfort that nothing was going to jump out at me. Haunted walkthroughs are way more scarier if you're the only one doing them. Fortunately I didn't come across any live actors although it could easily house them. It's also worth mentioning that it's a very long attraction with 3 floors and not knowing how long it would take to get through the inevitable daylight at it's end was a welcome relief.

The rest of the park is in mixed condition, with some being left in a bad state and some of it bearing up well. Apparently there's a miniature park somewhere but I never saw it when I visited and although signposted I didn't find any farm. Perhaps they're gone, and I did get shouted out for apparently walking up a path I shouldn't have although there was no signage to indicate that.

This was part of a studio tour "attraction" that looked to have been left in disrepair. I don't think having your photo taken in this London phone box would convince anyone you'd been to the capital.

So Innovative Film City is a bit of an oddity. A park that should by all account be closed but is still going, although I have no idea how. It was one of my highlights on account of that magician's amazing performance though. 

Innovative Film City can be found off the Mysore Road near Abbanakuppe. It's 15 minutes from Wonder La and easily do-able in the same day.

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