A couple of weeks ago, Ranbir Kapoor shot for Luv Ranjan’s untitled film at Yamuna Ghat near ITO. The film also stars Shraddha Kapoor and Boney Kapoor and is filmed primarily in Noida

While Ranbir Kapoor is currently shooting for his untitled film in Noida and Kartik Aaryan is filming Shehzada at multiple locations in NCR, Alia Bhatt and Ranveer Singh have just wrapped their schedule of Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani. Not just in the recent months, but this whole year a string of films and web series were shot in Delhi and many are lined up for upcoming weeks.

This year, when film crews returned to Delhi, filmmakers ensured there was a packed schedule and multiple shoot locations. Production members say, “From junior actors to bouncers and other ground staff, everyone was filming multiple films on the same day.”

While filming in Delhi, filmmakers have always said, “Delhi is a character in my film.” It might be a cliche, but it is for a reason. Shooting in Delhi helps them capture it all – the locations, the mannerisms of the characters, and the language. That’s why whenever filmmakers shoot in the capital, they get shots of everything from Old Delhi, the monuments and Lodhi Garden to the high-rises and farmhouses of Noida and Gurgaon.

Haveli owners of Old Delhi recently told us that even after over a decade of the release of Delhi-6, filmmakers are still lining up to set their cameras on terraces of the Walled City to capture the skyline of Old Delhi and Jama Masjid. From Kartik’s Shehzada and Akshay Kumar’s Raksha Bandhan to Made In Heaven 2, several projects have been shot in Old Delhi this year. While Kartik’s film and KJo’s team shot in Gurgaon’s Cyber City, a bulk of Ranbir’s film is being shot in a Noida farmhouse.

Recently, Shehzada’s team filmed at Miranda House and line producers say that due to sports infrastructure in colleges, filmmakers prefer shooting in colleges instead of stadiums. A source associated with an ongoing movie project says, “There has been a huge demand for film shoots in colleges. Not just the colleges of north and south Delhi, but several colleges in Noida and Greater Noida have also received a lot of requests for film shoots.” Several films were shot at colleges in Greater Noida as well.

This year, when shoots resumed post the second wave, there was also a major hike in location rates. A source shares, “Since so many filmmakers are keen to shoot in Delhi, businesses want to recover the lockdown loss by increasing prices. For instance, if there was a banquet hall for which we were charged Rs. 1 lakh in 2019, now suddenly the location costs us Rs. 4 lakh. Similarly, Delhi colleges, hotels, farmhouses have all increased their rates. In fact, for indoor shoots, Noida Ghaziabad and Gurgaon are lately preferred more because of lower rates. Some Greater Noida colleges even offer their locations for free.”