It has been more or less a sentiment for a few film stars and producers in Tollywood and Bollywood to have a scene involving the railways in their films. This has now led to the increase in demand for hiring the Multi Model Transportation System (MMTS) trains in Hyderabad and local trains in rural areas!
Since Mahesh Babu’s fight scenes in an MMTS train got great response from the audience in Pokiri, he continued the trend to shoot fighting scenes at least on railway tracks.
The same trend was followed in his movies Khaleja, Businessman, etc. Mahesh Babu is now busy with his upcoming movie Sambhavami under the banner, N.V.R. Cinema, and producer N.V. Prasad is planning a few romantic as well as fight scenes on the MMTS rail. The film unit has already approached the South Central Railway and the authorities have issued the permission to shoot from March 8-10.
As per regular schedules, the services of the MMTS begin at 4.15 am and end at 11.45 pm. Usually, the film units which hire the trains and MMTS stations, utilise the railway services between 12 am and 4 am.
Similarly, prominent producer Dil Raju has sentiments attached to the railways and has used railway stations, rails and even the railway tracks in his films. He has booked the railway shed/garage at Moula Ali from March 16-24 for his upcoming movie Duvvada Jagannatham.
The lead actor of the movie, Allu Arjun, also shares a similar sentiment. He prefers action scenes at railway garages. Ever since his first film, Gangotri, we have seen him on the tracks either during action or romantic scenes.
Victory Venkatesh is no different. It’s only obvious in his movies, Premante Idera, Nuvvu Naku Nachav, Preminchukundam Raa and Nuvvu Vastavani among others.
If we look further towards Bollywood, who can forget the hit number Chayya Chayya in Dil Se? Most Tollywood producers have followed this trend of dancing on train top. Take for instance, actress Rasi’s item song in Venky and the song Aa Ante Amalapuram in Allu Arjun’s Arya.
Chief Public Relations Officer of South Central Railway, M. Umashankar Kumar says that the additional revenue to SCR has been increasing year-after-year as the film industry has been hiring trains and stations for shootings.
“We allow the film unit after obtaining prior permission from the local police. They can make use of any of the platforms on railway stations and trains, which can be provided up to one kilometre,” he explains.
