How Mumbai’s CST became its most iconic filming location

Early Hindi films did most of their shooting on sets. However, many of Mumbai’s iconic spots (including Victoria Terminus) are featured in Guru Dutt’s Aar Paar. Dutt played Kalu, a taxi driver from Madhya Pradesh, who, in this famous song composed by OP Nayyar and written by Majrooh Sultanpuri, takes his lady love, Nikki (Shyama), out for a drive. However, this wasn’t the first movie to film Mumbai. That honour belongs to Chetan Anand and another motorist, Taxi Driver (1954).

Two years later, in 1956, Mohammed Rafi sang of the newly expanding city’s vast growth in another Guru Dutt production, directed by Raj Khosla. Victoria Terminus was one of the buildings mentioned in the song ‘Aye Dil Hain Mushkil’, written by Majrooh Sultanpuri. The song became more commonly known as ‘Yeh Hai Bombay Meri Jaan’ and was adopted by the city as its unofficial anthem.

Director Muzaffar Ali’s first film explored the dilemmas faced by central India’s villagers who decide to move to the big city to try to change their fortunes. Here, Farooq Shaikh’s Ghulam hails from Uttar Pradesh and leaves behind his family to earn money by becoming a taxi driver. The pensive ‘Seene Mein Jalan Aankhon Mein Toofan’, sung by Suresh Wadkar, shows the lonely existence of the man in the black-and-yellow cab surrounded by people going about their everyday business in the city. One of the places he passes by is Victoria Terminus.

The joyous Oscar-winning number, choreographed by Longinus Fernandes, plays through Slumdog Millionaire’s uplifting finale and credits. The film’s crew, especially cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle, devised new techniques and digital cameras to shoot on location in jam-packed areas like Dharavi and CST. For instance, they shot the song along the empty platforms between 2am and 4am for 10 days.

Shah Rukh Khan’s home production Ra.One, directed by Anubhav Sinha, set up a fantastic finale amongst the local trains at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus. The evil video game character Ra.One (Arjun Rampal) lures his main rival G.One (Shah Rukh Khan) on the train to save his brainwashed wife, played by Kareena Kapoor Khan. G.One prevents the train from crashing into the station by breaking apart the cars. However, that doesn’t stop the main car from breaking through the terminus (destroying its Gothic edifice) and erupting on to the main street.

Gautham Menon’s remake of his Tamil film, Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa (2010), was a love story about the on-off relationship between a Hindu boy and Christian girl, starring Prateik Babbar and Amy Jackson. In this song, composed and sung by music maestro AR Rahman, the couple takes a tour through Mumbai’s most well-known spots – from Marine Drive to the Taj Mahal Hotel and, yes, even CST. Madhushree accompanied Rahman in the vocals for the song while Javed Akhtar wrote the lyrics.

In November 2008, the emblematic station faced its biggest challenge when it became one of the sites of one of the deadliest terror attacks carried out in the city. Five years later, amidst great controversy, filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma’s released a dramatic retelling of the 2008 attacks on key South Mumbai locations. The scene above imagines, in grisly detail, how Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab entered the station and carried out his mission.

The tradition continues even today as newer movies made in the ‘city of dreams’ still feature Chhratrapati Shivaji Terminus. The teaser trailer of director Ravi Jadhav’s upcoming film, Banjo, focuses on Riteish Deshmukh, a Mumbai native who excels at the banjo. Nargis Fakhri plays his co-star in the film. The opening shots of the trailer show CST in all its early morning grandeur.