Following the recent finalisation of agreements and contracts relating to the Cape Town Film Studios (formerly known as Dreamworld), filmmaker and shareholder Anant Singh has given reassurance that his plans for the Durban film studio are still underway.

According to The Mercury legal issues and the relocation of the defence force from the site have delayed the progress of the Durban studio. The defence force is reportedly committed to move off the site in the next few months and the legal process is in motion.

Singh stated that he saw the Durban and Cape Town studios working in synergy and complementing each other. He added that both cities, their provincial governments and the national government are committed to further development of the film industry in South Africa as is clearly demonstrated by the Department of Trade and Industry’s revised film incentive scheme.

In June 2004, Singh bought a beachfront site for the Durban studio where Natal Command was located for R15m. The selling of the site led to an outcry from property developers who said that the site was worth approximately R100m (Source: Business Report).

Durban city manager Michael Sutcliffe has stated that the council had agreed to sell the site to Singh to build a studio. When the deal was approved in 2004 the motivation for the sale, which was to stimulate economic development through the film industry, was sound.

This was however challenged by a Durban businessman who insisted that the council had not followed the proper procedure in allocating the site. Singh says that the matter is currently in the high court and as far as they are concerned the due process was followed according to the old legislation, which allows the council under the private treaties to grant permission for special projects such as the building of the studio.