The ‘Coaching Capital’ of the country, Kota had some familiar faces wandering around it’s scenic locations when Bollywood stars Alia Bhatt and Varun Dhawan visited the city otherwise known for its thronging student community. Alia and Varun were shooting in the city for Karan Johar’s Dharma production film – ‘Badrinath Ki Dulhaniya’.
While this is not the first time a film has been shot in Kota as earlier films like Maachis (1996) and Jab We Met (2006) were also shot on the outskirts of Kota, but ‘Badrinath ki Dulhaniya’ is been filmed in the heart of Kota City. This has prompted residents of the city as well as coaching students to flock around the shooting locations to catch a glimpse of their favourite stars. One coaching student, Praffula Sharma said that he noticed a crowd near the Seven Wonders Park after which he also went there and saw shoot of the film for a while. Another student Vicky Kumar said that he saw film stars for the first time in his life and that too in Kota, which was a very thrilling experience.
Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt have been seen shooting at various locations around Kota City, including Kishore Sagar Lake of Kota and Jal Mandir Temple which is on the lake, the road outside Janaki Devi Bajaj Government Girls College of Kota, Ummed Club, the road near Art Gallery of Kota, a city bus in Kota among other places, since September 8. One of the location where the film was shot, the ‘Seven Wonders Park’ has replicas of the Seven Wonders of the World including the Taj Mahal, Egypt’s Pyramid, the Leaning tower of Pisa, the Eiffel Tower, the Christ the Redeemer statue, the Colosseum and the Statue of Liberty.
Sources revealed that the cast and crew of the film liked the locations of Kota. Subhash Soral, who is local line producer of the film, said that Kota has beautiful monuments and locations like Seven Wonders Park, Kishore Sagar Lake and others and filmmakers are showing interest in shooting their films in Kota. He said that several television serials have also been shot in the recent past along with several low budget films.
The shooting for the film in Kota will be on till September 11.