Apta Railway Station over Central Railway, continues to be the most popular film shooting location for film makers after Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus Railway Station. In the financial year 2019-2020, four films were shot at Apta Railway station including Raat Akeli Hai, Mumbai Saga and Shubh Mangal Zayada Savdhan and 8 films were shot at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, the most popular films were Panga, Choked and Suraj se Mangal Bhari.
Apta station is encompassed in camera in numerous films, including the most popular films like Dilwale Dulaniya Le Jayenge, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Rang de Basanti, Baaghi, Khaki, Shaadi No. 1, ChinaTown and many other box-office hit films. Shivaji Sutar, Chief Public Relations Officer said “Apta known for its scenic location with one side hill, the other side a road nearby a river and easy road accessibility, located on the Panvel –Roha route with curvy track and platforms, ample space for keeping equipments and to park Vanity Vans of Actors. Such a station with less crowd is a perfect location for film shooting.” Apta Railway station has been given halt for few trains and it is crossing station as such it also has an additional track which makes doubly sweet for movement of special trains booked for film shooting. Apta is just a 2 hours journey, about 75 kms from the Film City, Mumbai. Thereby, Apta Railway Station has become the most preferred location for film shooting of web series, documentaries and TV serials.”
Central Railway has been gifted with many beautiful film shooting locations fulfilling the requirements of the film makers. From the most preferred film shooting location, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus to the popular stations like Apta, Panvel, Chouk, Lonavala, Khandala, Wathar, Satara and railway yards like Turbhe and Wadi bunder. The permission for the film shooting is granted by the Public Relations Department of Central Railway, recently to expedite the film shooting permission, a single window system has been introduced, this simplification of the procedure will enable the film companies to obtain permission after submission of the necessary documents along with the script and application mentioning the requirements.
Central Railway earned Rs. 1.33 cores in 21 film shootings in 2019-20, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus Station with 8 film shootings including film ‘Panga’ earned Rs. 44.52 lakhs, Apta with 22.61 lakh rupees in 4 film shootings. The highest amount of Rs. 22.10 lakhs was earned from Rajnikant starrer ‘Darbaar’ shot at Panvel Station. The scenic location Wathar over Pune Division earned Rs. 37.22 lakhs from 3 films including Salman starrer ‘Dabangg 3’ giving earning of Rs. 15.70 lakhs, a shot of film ‘Lal Singh Chaddha’ between Pune to Mumbai and other film shooting locations like Turbhe and Wadi bunder Yard, Pune station were also generated good income.
