Railways steps up fees for film shoots

Film producers will now have to shell out a lot more to shoot on Indian Railways. Citing steep rise in input cost,the Railway Ministry....

Film producers will now have to shell out a lot more to shoot on Indian Railways. Citing steep rise in input cost,the Railway Ministry has more than doubled the daily minimum charges to shoot on special trains and also revised the haulage and other charges.

Earlier,the ministry used to charge a minimum of Rs 94,000 per day on special trains. Now,it will charge Rs 2.31 lakh per day. The revision came into effect from July 1 this year. The last time the charges for booking of special trains were revised was in 1997.

Of late,many popular films like Jab We Met,Johnny Gaddar,Ghajini and Slumdog Millionaire have been shot extensively on the Indian Railway network. According to officials,Central Railways earned a revenue of Rs 82 lakh in 2007-2008 from film shoots on its network. Western Railways also reported revenue earnings of Rs 66 lakh during the same period from the shoots.

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Now,in addition to revising the haulage charges for shooting on trains,Railways will levy detention charges at a minimum of Rs 1,500 per coach and a subsequent Rs 300 per hour for every coach. Railways will also levy a service charge of 20 per cent on the overall charges along with a Development Charge. A security deposit of a minimum of Rs 1,50,000 will also have to be made.

It was in 2007 that Railways had first come out with a detailed policy on shooting in railway premises and on-board trains wherein they had decided to hike the licence fee charged by four to 10 times depending on the class of city.

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