Bombay-based Dharma did not intend to film in Connecticut, but shifted its focus when New York City officials discouraged lengthy shoots the crew required at Grand Central Terminal.

By the time it was over, Mansukhani was asking,  “Why didn’t we make the whole film here?”

Suddenly there’s a lot of chatter about movie making in Connecticut, stirred in part by two ambitious plans.

Frank Capra Jr, son of the It’s a Wonderful Life director, is proposing a massive movie and entertainment complex in North Stonington, just down the road from Foxwoods Resort Casino. He is president of EUE Screen Gems Studios of Wilmington, N.C., the East Coast state with the largest movie industry.

Capra’s proposal — “a casino without the gambling,” one critic remarked at a North Stonington public hearing last week — would also include theaters, an upscale shopping center, behind-the-scenes tours, and an Imax cinema on 400 acres now owned by the Mashantucket Pequots.

“They are film people,” said Robert Avena, North Stonington Studios lawyer. “They are entertainment people ... They are highly technical people who want to make this project go.”

Ten miles away in Preston, across the Thames River from Mohegan Sun, Utopia Studios, a Long Island startup, is proposing movie studios as part of a $1.6 billion theme park and college of the performing arts at the 400-acre former Norwich State Hospital site.

Legislative leaders in Hartford are developing a package of incentives for the movie industry, as Rhode Island did recently and New York did a couple of years ago. Meanwhile, Utopia could go to Preston voters for approval in early 2006.

“Historically, there has been a very strong desire for the industry to come to our state,” said Mark A. Dixon, location manager at the state’s small film office. It’s a small state with variety, he explained.

But not everyone agrees with the rosy scenarios.

“I don’t think a film studio is viable in North Stonington,” said Vilma Gregoropoulos, vice chairwoman of the North Stonington Planning and Zoning Commission. “We don’t have squat in North Stonington.’’