At the heart of Mumbai's legendary Dadasaheb Phalke Chitranagari — the government-owned complex that has anchored Indian cinema for over five decades — a new chapter opened on 6 August 2026, as Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis inaugurated Prime Focus Studio – Phase 1, signalling Maharashtra's intent to keep Mumbai at the forefront of global entertainment production.

The Chief Minister's Office confirmed the inauguration took place at 12:15 pm, with Minister Adv. Ashish Shelar, Namit Malhotra — founder of Prime Focus Limited and Global CEO of DNEG — and other dignitaries in attendance. The event marks a significant public-private milestone at Film City, one of India's most storied production campuses.

Namit Malhotra's bet on Mumbai's VFX future

Prime Focus Limited, founded by Malhotra, has grown from a Mumbai post-production house into a global operation through its subsidiary DNEG, which carries credits on some of the biggest international studio productions in recent memory. Bringing Phase 1 of its new studio home to Chitranagari is both a homecoming and a statement of scale — world-class visual effects infrastructure, planted firmly on legacy Indian soil.

DNEG's global footprint gives the facility an international dimension that earlier Film City expansions lacked. For Maharashtra, the association lends the project credibility well beyond the domestic market.

Maharashtra's Film City strategy: legacy infrastructure, modern ambition

Dadasaheb Phalke Chitranagari was established in the 1970s as a government initiative to give the Indian film industry dedicated, professional infrastructure. Decades on, it remains a central pillar of Mumbai's entertainment economy — but faces real competition from upgraded studios in other Indian states and from overseas post-production hubs.

Maharashtra has responded with a pattern of public-private partnerships aimed at modernising the campus. The Prime Focus Studio project fits that playbook: private capital and expertise layered onto government-owned land, with the state providing the platform and the industry providing the technology. Phase 2 of the studio is the natural next milestone to watch, alongside any new state policy announcements on film or VFX production incentives.

For Mumbai's community of VFX artists, animators, and production professionals, a world-class facility at Film City — rather than abroad — could meaningfully change where high-end work gets done. That, more than any ribbon-cutting, is the real story of 6 August 2026.