A government resolution (GR) was issued on March 14 by the Maharashtra government, overturning a 20-year-old ban on film shootings at state-run medical colleges and hospitals. The GR states that shootings in government and semi-government places could be carried out after seeking a nod from the authorities so long as patients and students were not disturbed.
The GR follows the permission granted to a film production house to shoot a courtroom sequence in the boys’ common room of Bombay’s JJ Hospital — and its subsequent withdrawal earlier this week. The film crew, which had to abruptly stop the shooting schedule on the JJ Hospital campus earlier this week, will now get to complete its “courtroom scene”.
Following the GR, JJ Hospital’s dean set up a committee to decide on applications received from film production companies for permission to shoot in government-run medical colleges and hospitals. The state units can now decide on the duration and cost of shooting within the college/hospital precincts.
Shootings in state-run hospitals and colleges were banned in 2004 after patients were inconvenienced during a film shooting at the state-run St. George’s Hospital in Bombay.