Exorbitant location fees upset film producers

Charges to shoot in public spots range between 15,000 and 75,000

Hyderabad: Even as Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao is busy chalking out bigger plans to salvage the ailing Telugu film industry and mulling to set up yet another film city on the periphery of Hyderabad, small and medium scale producers are finding it hard even to shoot outdoors as the location charges are going sky-high each passing day.

Over 900 Telugu producers feel that the Chief Minister should resolve issues step-by-step to reduce production cost before making grandiose plans in the name of boosting the industry. Top in their list, is the reduction of exorbitant location charges demanded by various government agencies to grant permission to shoot in parks, streets, flyovers, hospitals, dams, and highways and even in rural areas, since it is costing anything between Rs 25 lakh and Rs 3 crore for small and big budget film respectively.

Realising its importance, Telangana Film Chamber of Commerce has submitted a memorandum to Cinematography Minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav to take immediate steps to reduce the burden. “It’s truly pinching the pockets of producers, so we have petitioned the Minister to reduce the rates. Even for permissions, we have to run from pillar to post, so introduction of a single-window system would ease the tension of producers.

Chief Minister should make film shooting in the new State easy and affordable,” says Vijayendar Reddy, president, Telangana Film Chamber of Commerce. Actually, united Andhra Pradesh government had levied exorbitant rates for shooting in parks, flyovers, streets, hospitals, dams and highways in cities but relatively cheaper in rural areas which burned a hole in the pockets of producers.

With charges ranging between Rs 15,000 and Rs 75, 000 per day for varied locations, producers had to earmark 15 percent to 20 percent of their budgets just for location fee. Adding to their woes, seeking permission from various government departments is another arduous task, so producers are migrating to other States to shoot their films.

“It is high time the government revised the location fee since it is much higher in comparison to Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. It should try to fix rates with an upper ceiling of Rs 10,000 per location, since film shootings will not only generate revenue and employment for Telangana people, but the far away locales once shown onscreen, would attract tourists later on,” says producer Natti Kumar who urges the government to make police permission optional than mandatory.

“Despite having proper permission, some corrupt cops land on the sets and create a big fuss and producers are forced to grease their palms to the tune of Rs 20,000 to Rs 30,000 at times, so optional choice should be restored,” laments Natti.

By:BVS Prakash