NAVODAYA STUDIO
Kishkinta is a themed amusement park in Chennai, India, which opened to the public in 1995.
It was founded by Navodaya Appachan, the owner of Navodaya Studio, one of Kerala's earliest movie studios dating back to the 1940s. Spread over 120 acres of landscaped gardens, water bodies,2500 transplanted trees and themed rides Kishkinta was envisioned by the team of filmmakers, engineers and entertainment specialists who are now giving shape to Navodya 2.0 - entertaiment for the future.
The park is named after the fabled monkey kingdom in the Indian epic 'Ramayana'.
Kishkinta is in the suburbs of Chennai city. Built with a capital of 400 million Rupees the company has since diversified into designing / building amusement park rides, machinery and shows and for other amusement parks.
Rainwater Harvesting : Kishkinta has an ingenious system of macro- and micro- level rain water harvesting which was built into the basic architecture in 1990. The park lies on the Adyar river flood plain. Wide longitudinal canals draw in the monsoon downpour. This water serves as a captive source for all the park's needs. Five five artificial lakes within the theme park function as reservoirs and also as water-base amusement facilities. The Tamil Nadu Government began its rain water harvesting programme five years later in 2001, five years after it was implemented in Kishkinta.
HISTORY
KISHKINTA - India's first themed amusement park constructed at the Chennai suburbs of
Tambaram. is a project of NAME - Navodaya Mass Entertainments Ltd.
It took 5 years of creative efforts by a number of Artists, Architects, Program designers,
Engineers, Environment scientists and City planners to implement this.
Before the indigenous design and fabrication of every one of Kishkinta's ride could happen, a team -- Jijo, Artdirector Sheker, Architect Jayachandran, Program Designer SureshKanthan and Ride designer Balakrishnan under the leadership of Project Engineer Imbichammad, did make numerous fact finding trips.
Applying Murphy's Law to component designs and TUV standards in operational procedures, Jijo was in charge of Safety. Sheker was in charge of Ergonomics.
from Left to Right
1) Father of steel rollercoasters
- The legendary Anton Schwarzkopf,
2) His son
- Wieland Schwarzkopf,
3) Jijo
4) Structural engineer Werner Stengel
- whose name is an institution.
Photographed by Imbichammad.
Munich. April 1989.
After concealing the pumps, tanks &
change rooms of this giant bathing falls
inside a hill, the architect had them
covered with cultured rock faces.
An architectural genius of this park is the harvesting of rain water in a flood-prone area and utilising it year round for water rides.
Kishkinta has 30 acres of manmade waterbodies. More than 7000 full grown trees were transplanted here under an army of horticulturists & gardeners. Kishkinta sprawls over 120 acres. The staff strength is 600.
Prakash Moorthy, Designer
Kishkinta logo and the Mascot monkey.