Central Railway earns Rs. 2.48 crores through film shoots in 2021-22, out of which Rs. 1.27 crores came from the shoot of Kiran Rao and Aamir Khan’s upcoming film

By Fenil Seta -

July 5, 2022 - 1:13 PM IST

Kiran Rao had an impressive directorial debut with Dhobi Ghat (2011). The slice-of-life film starred Prateik Babbar, Monica Dogra and Kriti Malhotra with her then hubby, superstar Aamir Khan, in a supporting role. 11 years later, she is back with another promising film. It is expected to be a fun flick, unlike her last film, which was a niche entertainer. And Aamir Khan has once again come on board, in the capacity of a producer.

Central Railway earns Rs. 2.48 crores through film shoots in 2021-22, out of which Rs. 1.27 crores came from the shoot of Kiran Rao and Aamir Khan’s upcoming film

While not much is known about the film, it was reported that it has been titled 2 Brides and that it stars Sparsh Shrivastav, Pratibha Ranta, and Nitanshi Goel. A recent report also stated it has been renamed Lapata Ladki. The same report claimed that the trailer of the film will be attached with the prints of Laal Singh Chaddha, which stars Aamir in the lead and which will be released on August 11 this year in cinemas.

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Bollywood Hungama has found some interesting details about Kiran Rao’s upcoming directorial project. The Central Railway recently revealed that in the last financial year, it earned Rs. 2.48 crores by offering various premises and rail coaches for film shooting. It is the highest ever amount earned by Central Railway through film shoots ever. Interestingly, out of Rs. 2.48 crores, Rs. 1.27 crores were earned through just one film and that’s none other than Kiran Rao’s next! In other words, nearly half of the revenue earned by the railway zone came from just one film.

Amit Kulkarni, of Ekdant Films, who served as the line producer of this film, exclusively told Bollywood Hungama, “The film was extensively shot on railway premises. It took around 48-50 days for the unit to shoot the whole film out of which they shot for 24 days on railway properties.”

When prodded further, Amit Kulkarni, who has also worked on The Empire, Rocket Boys, The Fame Game, Abhay Season 2, Abhay Season 3, Aafat-E-Ishq and Jamtara and the upcoming Jamtara 2, continued, “We shot the film at Yeola railway station. It is located in Nashik district, Maharashtra and around 100 kms away from Nashik City. A part of the film was also shot at Kanhegaon railway station, in Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra. Both these stations are virgin locations. No film has been ever shot at these places. Usually, filmmakers prefer shooting at Apta station, where several films have been filmed over the years (like Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Rang De Basanti, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Khakee, etc). Kiran ji, however, wanted a different location and was more than happy when we told her about Yeola and Kanhegaon.”

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Amit Kulkarni also revealed, “The shoot happened smoothly. We also cast several locals in the film as junior artistes.” When asked if producer Aamir Khan ever visited them on the set, Amit Kulkarni confirmed that he never came during the shoot of the film.

Besides Kiran Rao’s next, the other 9 projects which were shot on Central Railway’s premises last financial year were six feature films, two web series, one short film and one advertisement. As per Central Railway’s information, a feature film was filmed at Adarki Railway Station in Satara district for 9 days, and it fetched them Rs. 65.95 lakhs.

The iconic Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, Mumbai continued to be the preferred shooting location with four films/series being shot here in 2021-22. One of them included Modern Love Mumbai on Amazon Prime Video, starring Arshad Warsi and Chitrangda Singh. The other locations where filmmakers shot their ventures are Old Wadi Bunder Yard, Dadar, Mulund RPF Ground and Matheran Railway Station.

What’s remarkable is that despite pandemic restrictions, Central Railway managed to collect the highest ever revenue from film shooting in the last financial year, surpassing the previous highest revenue generated in the year 2013-14 amounting to Rs. 1.73 crores. Even in the year before that (2020-21), it managed to earn revenue amounting to Rs. 41.16 lakhs.