Tucked in the middle of the 'Millennium City', Gurgaon, is a palace - grandiose, spectacular and much like a set from a Bollywood film.
Life-size papier-mâché elephants greet you, mermaids in water fountains calm you just as you spy Sakyamuni or a sleeping Buddha around the corner. Welcome to the Kingdom of Dreams (KoD), India's first ever entertainment and leisure destination that opens its doors today.
Spread across nine acres, KoD is a combination of craft, culture, theatre and food from various parts of the country that brings together traditional and modern India. And what opens today is the Culture Gulley, a busy Indian carnival, that can be covered in just one walk under a glorious skydrome.
There's the hustle-bustle of a bazaar, delicious rustic cuisine from 14 different states of India and a crash-course in folk arts of that particular state a la Dilli Haat.
"The idea was to create a place which could be a one-stop shop experience of India," says Viraf Sarkari, director of KoD, who has been passionately involved in conjuring up this place.
"A tourist destination, a place for a family to spend the day or even for friends to come by and soak in some culture, we want to make this the final stop in leisure entertainment."
Bollywood set designer Omung Kumar of Saawariya and Black fame has created this architectural marvel. At the stalls, every single artifact, mural and sculpture on display has been hand-crafted and sourced from artists based in various states.
{{/usCountry}}Bollywood set designer Omung Kumar of Saawariya and Black fame has created this architectural marvel. At the stalls, every single artifact, mural and sculpture on display has been hand-crafted and sourced from artists based in various states.
{{/usCountry}}A Rs 200 crore project, the KoD is opening in phases, with the Nautanki Mahal, a state-of-the-art theatre that will open with the first-ever Bollywood musical with music by Shankar Ehsaan Loy and scripted by Javed Akhtar.