Shooting films on South Eastern railway stations profitable

Indian railways are becoming innovative. Railway minister Suresh Prabhu had declared last year that his department was loking for a 'non-fare revenue generation' model and the South Eastern Zone (SEZ) of the railways has come up with one such model. It has genersted revenue of more than 60 lakh from film shoots.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 15 May 2016.

Trains and railway stations have always gone hand in hand and been an intrinsic part of cinema from Bollywood or Hollywood or Tollywood and when such scenes are shot on location in railway stations, the railways earn quite a bit. In fact, South Eastern Railway earned substantial revenue from film shoots in the last fiscal - the earnings were more than 60 lakh from film shoots, while it was only 19 lakh the earlier fiscal and hardly 6.74 lakh in 2013-14.
Of course, Central Railway , which hosts a majority of Bollywood shoots has earned approximately 80 lakh last fiscal and the earnings of SER considered a major achievement. As rvealed by SER officials, Shalimar, Kharagpur and Santragachi stations were among the favorite shooting destinations throughout the year.
Shalimar station has generated maximum revenue because it is a terminal station, which caters to both passenger and goods train movement. But the crowd is less, therefore a large yard and wide passenger platforms are easily available and there is reduced security concerns for celebrities. That makes it easier for production teams to shoot at the station. The shooting fee is also lower compared to other larger and busier stations.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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