Dikhyaa Mohanty 
As a gesture to the Birth Anniversary of Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and memorialize the celebrations of the 75th year of Independence, filming all the protected monuments to encourage tourism and culture will not be charged from December 25 to August 15, 2021.
The Minister of Culture ordered that none of the centrally protected monuments which promote tourism will be charged. “Exempts the payment of fees/charges under rule 44(1) of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Rules, 1959 for the filming of centrally protected monuments and sites from December 25, 2000, to August 15, 2021,” the order stated by the Ministry.
In the tweet, Prahlad Patel, Cultural Minister, said, “On the occasion of Atal Bihari Vajpayeeji’s birth anniversary, from December 25 to August 15, 2021, the @ASIGoI will allow filming in monuments free of charge, except for the world heritage sites. It is an auspicious occasion to promote freedom, language, art, culture, tourism. This has been done under the Dekho Apna Desh initiative to encourage people to see their own country.”
But the applicants or agencies will have to apply for permission for the shooting as under Rule 43 of the AMASR Rules, 1959. The Archaeological Survey Of India (ASI)’s order stated that the exemption would be given to the applicants working on the areas of the Indian independence movement, life of a freedom fighter, sacrifices in the freedom movement, Indian tradition, and culture, advertising of national language, folk arts/folk language, the heritage of Indian tourism development and promotion and other issues relating to national importance.
The applicants will have to pay a refundable security deposit to film the centrally protected monuments and sites. This, however, will not apply to the 27 world heritage sites. The ASI has 3,692 centrally-protected monuments, and 50000 per day per site is the fee amount for filming at these locations, which is non-refundable. Along with that, 10000 as security deposits, which is refundable, is charged.
Image Source – Google
News Source – PTI
