Ramanagara, is a well-developed town located 55 kms from Bangalore, famous for its silk market, and will always be remembered as the setting of Bollywood classic Sholay, which was shot there in the 1970s.

Everyone who passes through Ramanagara, called Ramgarh in Sholay, learns this bit of filmi history. And now a new resort plans to capitalise on the city's fame.

The Ramgarh Resort and Spa, which is being developed by the Anantara Hotels and Resorts under the name Amritara, is basing its entire theme around the cult-status of Sholay!

The resort, located on 6.67 acres of land, will even have characters from the movie on the staff. For instance, Gabbar Singh (played by Amjad Khan in Sholay) will be a masseuse, and there will be a 'Gabbar's Den', where his team members serve beverages to the customers.

Ravi Shankar, Managing Director at Ramgarh, took us through the under-construction resort, and explained it will be another year before it is complete.

"The Ramgarh Resort and Spa will be based on Sholay 'in spirit', but won't be an exact recreation of the movie's sets. Artwork, uniforms, food and beverage, cutlery and crockery and so on will be reminiscent of various famous scenes from Sholay, along with scenes from other famous movies from that era," he says.

"Our corporate chefs and service managers are presently working on creating a 'nostalgia course' -- it will attempt to deliver authentic food from "Thakur ki haveli" and beverages from "Gabbar ka adda". 

We will creatively use props, posters, artwork and uniforms from the cinema or creative improvisations from the same cinema, with the idea to extend the movie into a living experience, but not too in-your-face."

Another thing on offer will be animators re-creating scenes from the movie.

The resort will also provide horse riding, rappelling, and assorted in-house games designed around Sholay.

"And we are looking at getting a resort manager who looks like the host in the movie (Sanjeev Kumar)."

The resort is trying to place itself between "slightly garish and melodramatic" and "a more conventional luxury resort".

Ravi Shankar further states that there will be 24 villas, two restaurants, a bar, a spa, and a conference hall with a 150 person capacity.

The resort will also utilise a rain water harvesting programme, and is attempting to be a 100% environmentally friendly project.

"The location was always famous and sometimes spoken about over a cocktail with friends, but never really visited, and besides some occasional rappelling camps, nothing happened here," Ravi Shankar says.

"We found the landscape amazing and the location's relevance unique enough to appeal to a very large target group, the 30-70 year-olds, and upper-middle class Bangaloreans looking for a break from the hum-drum.

"As the movie cuts across 3 generations of viewers, we are confident the resort will create enough initial curiosity for us to establish a position the resort as a must-visit place."