CR earns over Rs 1 crore from film shoots at its locations

The Central Railway (CR) has earned over Rs one crore in the last financial year by renting its various premises and rail coaches for film shootings, an official said.

During the financial year 2017-18, around 16 films, including advertisements, a web series and documentaries, were shot at different CR locations by various filmmakers and production houses.

The CR earned Rs 15.32 lakh from the shooting of the film "Gully Boy" (starring Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt) at the Wadi Bunder yard in South Mumbai, CR's Chief Public Relations Officer Sunil Udasi told reporters yesterday.

"It was one the highest revenue generating film for CR," he said.

"Thanks to our few popular stations, like the old Wadi Bunder yard near Sandhurst Road station and the Apta station (in Panvel area), the Central Railway earned a good revenue from film shoots in the last financial year," he said.

The earning from film shootings during 2017-18 crossed over Rs 1 crore, while in 2016-17 it was Rs 73.93 lakh, he said.

"Thus we earned 36.43 per cent more revenue in the last financial year," Udasi said.

Besides "Gully Boy", the CR earned Rs 14.5 lakh from a cola advertisement film shoot at Wathar station near Satara district, and Rs 7 lakh from the shooting of film "Jalebi: Circle of Love" at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) in Mumbai, he said.

Commenting on the upsurge in revenue generation through movie shoots, Udasi said the Central Railway has taken an initiative to grant permissions without any hassles to the production houses.

"We have introduced a single-window system to grant permission for the shooting of films and ads, and this way the processing time of applications has reduced. Earlier it used to take around 15 days, but now filmmakers get permission withing a week even there is a requirement for rolling stock (rail coaches)," he said.

The Maharashtra cabinet had last week approved a single window system to grant permission to those wanting to shoot films, television programmes, serials, commercials and documentaries on government land.

State Culture Minister Vinod Tawde had said producers would have to apply online and permission would be granted in 15 days.

The system will start as a pilot project in Mumbai and would then be extended to the entire state based on the feedback received, he had said.