Soon, filmmakers can shoot at public spots in the city for free

Strap: Govt makes move to keep business within the state Mumbai: After the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath, met stakeholders of the film industry earlier this month, encouraging them to consider the northern state to shoot their films, Maharashtra government promptly announced a makeover of the 521-acre Film City, in Goregaon

Strap: Govt makes move to keep business within the state

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Mumbai: After the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath, met stakeholders of the film industry earlier this month, encouraging them to consider the northern state to shoot their films, Maharashtra government promptly announced a makeover of the 521-acre Film City, in Goregaon. Unsure that this move was enough to hold the business within the confines of the state, it has now doled out another favour to the fraternity – in the near future, filmmakers can shoot at public places free of charge.

The state cabinet will take a decision to this effect soon, said the cultural affairs minister, Sudhir Mungantiwar.

He said such a move was the need of the hour as “there are chances of film activities shifting to other states”. The minister has also announced that the time taken to get permission to shoot will narrowed from 12 to two weeks in future.

The government charges ₹50,000 per day for shooting at forts and ₹5 lakh a day at Gateway of India. Shooting charges at other places vary according to the rural and urban bodies that issue permissions. An official from the cultural affairs department said their opinions have been sought.

“We are also discussing the implications of this move from the finance department. The concessions are being offered for ease of doing business,” he said. “We are taking these steps to be in competition. Filmmakers can shoot at any place governed by municipal corporations. The producers will not need to go to the government machinery.”

Mungantiwar said the move will not lead to any losses to the exchequer. “I have been informed by the revenue department that income from such fees range between ₹5 and ₹10 crore, per year. This decision will lead to more shoots in the city, which will boost ancillary businesses. This will result in the state earning GST of 28 per cent on film related activities. Other states like UP are eyeing such opportunities, so we have to act now,” said the minister.

On his two-day visit to the city in the first week of this month, the UP chief minister met over 40 leading representatives of the Hindi film industry. He said then that the proposed film city near Noida, spread over 1000 acres, would offer state-of-the-art technology, apart from other facilities for filmmakers to shoot.

According to the officials from the cultural affairs department, the forts at Worli, Bandra and Sewri are the hotspots for shooting films and TV serials. “Besides this, Gateway of India and other public places in Mumbai and forts elsewhere, including Purnagad in Konkan, are hot tickets. The relief is only for shooting at public places and not the Film City. We recently gave a discount of 50 per cent to Marathi films for shooting at Film City,” the officer said.

Apart from this waiver, the state government has also announced building a 36-acre studio in Kolhapur, along the lines of Ramoji Rao Film City, in Hyderabad.