The Central Railway (CR) has earned Rs. 81.21 lakh as fees from media houses for shooting films in its premises in the recently concluded 2015-16 fiscal, a senior official said.
The earnings include money (fees) taken from media houses producing commercial films, feature films, television serials, advertisements and documentaries.
Of this, media house Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment Limited which produced Tiger Shroff and Shraddha Kapoor starrer “Baaghi”, alone contributed Rs. 24.97 lakh, they said.
CR had earned Rs. 1.23 crore in the last fiscal, wherein media house British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) had contributed Rs. 62.83 lakh.
Chief PRO, CR, Narendra Patil said, “Most of the production houses have continued to prefer to shoot in the iconic Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) and Apta station along with other stations like Lokmanya Tilak Terminus, Jasai Railway Yard, Wadi Bunder, Lonavala etc.”
“While “Baaghi” was shot at Apta station, Salman Khan starrer “Prem Ratan Dhan Payo” was shot at the Chauk station which gave CR Rs. 8.09 lakh as fees,” Patil said.
“Jazbaa”, which featured Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, was shot at Wadi Bunder giving CR Rs. 6.47 lakh as fees, while popular television serial “Aaj Ki Raat Hai Zindagi” was shot in a running suburban train from CST to Badlapur and back till Dadar.
“This Amitabh Bachchan starrer serial paid Rs. 1.93 lakh as prescribed fees,” he added.
According to Patil, the CR has eased procedure for shooting in their stations and have made it a single window system.
“The money which is generated from shooting of films goes to the consolidated funds of Government of India and the cost of the fees or the charges is set by the Railway Board only,” he added.
“Whenever Railways allows private parties to shoot films in its premises, it charges for the facility, other tools or premises,” said another official.
“We take utmost care before issuing permission to shoot at the locations, that producers and directors do not portray Railways in a negative light,” he added.
