What is IFC – Innovative Film City is a unique concept having many amusements, attractions, museums & entertainment options all in one campus. This is ideal for one day outing people of all age groups esp kids. For the grown ups it does provide a chance to be child again & try to look at many things in awe!
USP: We have seen many amusement parks which have a lot of water slides, thrilling rides, giant wheels etc – they are pure amusement parks often exciting our bodies. But IFC has more than that. It has attractions that give thrill not just to the body, but also to our intellect. It does have some amusement park stuffs like wave pool, rides but its OTHER attractions that make it different from other. It has many First in India attractions like Ripley’s museum, Dinosaur park etc.
Where & How to reach: This is near Bidadi on Bangalore – Mysore highway, about 35kms from Bangalore. The place is just before Bidadi town, in its industrial area –very near to Toyoto & Pepsi factories. Since there are lots of sign boards all along the path, to the left reaching here from Bangalore is not a problem once one hits the Mysore Road. A word of caution though: since it’s to the interiors from the highway, its preferable to have own transport.
Who should go: Frankly speaking anyone who can afford their charges ( slightly on the higher side!) can go there. I will recommend it to school children ( they do have bulk discounts), for company outings & for families. I guess regular entry fee is around 750 for all attractions.
Amusements: This section of IFC offering is surely not its USP as we would have come across some of these elsewhere.
Aqua kingdom: is nothing but a wave pool accompanied by a nice sandy beach & lots of beach benches. I like playing volleyball here.
Funplex: is a glorified PC games centre. You are used to racing games on PC. Here instead of keyboard you have the actual vehicles, just that they don’t move ahead, but give you all other aspects of driving, like tilting etc. I sat in a speedboat in front of me is a large screen showing river, as I race my boat in water, the boat I was in also tosses!
4D Theatre: it’s a mini hall with a screen. You are given a special kind of glass & the move begins. For us it was a movie on Evolution. We felt the creatures almost rubbing our face! Add to it special effect in sound!
Go-karting: one gets 4 laps of carting. If you crash in between the referees pull you up & pull you out! (of the car)
Mini golf: Mark Twain said ‘golf is a good walk spoiled’. I always belived him & but got my confirmation when I went tapping thru the miniature 18 hol course. Even now I wonder what joy golfers get, I would rather lie down in that grass ;-)
Mirror maze: it’s a dark alley lit only but small red lights – you think you can walk straight but realize you are bumping into a glass.
Other Amusements like Fossil hunt, Toddlers den & wax hand were either not there when we went or we didn’t explore them.
Attractions: This is an area where it stands out from regular amusement places.
Cartoon city: some rides with cartoon themes – will be good for kids but we too took them ;-)
Dinosaur world: you will find all pre-historic animals here howling, moving their necks etc, but never moving – so we are safe.
Haunted mansion: A way to pay & get artificially scared walking thru ghostly settings.
Miniature city: Has models of Airport, buildings etc on miniature scale – makes you feel like a giant for a while ;-)
Other/upcoming ones: Double decker carrousel, Fashion café, Roller coster, Roller skates, Shoot out at ifc, Wannado city, Wild wild west, Giant wheel
Museums: 1) Jurassic fossil museum: has skeletons of dinosaurs, mammoth elephant etc. They do inspire awe though they look very artificial.
2)Wax museum: Has many wax statues of personalities –famous & infamous. They should have more Indian wax figures. Some wax figures looked poor imitation – seems wax mein bhi milawat ho gaya :P
3)Ripley belive it or not: A collection rare antiques, stuffs with interesting anecdotes etc.
Coming soon: Guiness records museum
Others & Upcoming include: Amphitheatre, Convention centre, Karoke, Kids amphtheatre, Star hunt –all of which we didn’t check out for lack of need. Upcoming ideas include: Touring talkes, 21 screen multiplex, Snow park. Hopefully when we go next, this should be full fledged IFC.
conclusion: over all this is an innovative concept & offers enough to spend a day innovatively - there is a quite a bit of play, lots to learn & lots to see