“The city has attracted many people from the entertainment industry, but most of them face problems in seeking permission for shooting as they have to get it separately for separate venues or spots,” Ram Niwas, UT Home-cum-Tourism Secretary told media. Niwas said, “Last year, shooting of as many as 25 films have been done here and most of them face this problem. We received a representation by Darshan Aulakh who organise the shootings here and that is why we decided to set up this cell.”

Nirdosh Kumar, tourism officer said, “The new policy of single-window no-objection certificate (NOC) as a prior permission for shooting has been adopted to eliminate the hazards of red-tapism in order to facilitate the film makers and attract them to the city which will in a way increase the revenues.” He said, “The whole process to take permission for shooting has made simple as there is only one uncomplicated form to fill and the NOC can be taken as the subject to the adherence of conditions prescribed by the administration.”

He informed that the required conditions are laid for shooting to protect general public from any nuisance during the process of shooting at any place in the city like no gas cylinder for cooking purpose for the unit, vehicles or sounds trucks inside the parks or gardens, the left out of the food packets are not allowed. As per the guidelines, it has been made the prime responsibility of the production houses or controller of the film or TV serial units to maintain the shooting venues and any kind of traffic hazards or law and order problem should be avoided. In addition to this, the production houses will have to pay required fee for shooting which varies from Rs 1,000 to 2,000 levied only at certain areas like Rose Garden, Sukhna Lake, while most of other places are available for free to the production houses.