More than two years ago, the Maharashtra state government banned all film and ad shooting inside the premise of the JJ School of Arts after four 125-year-old sculptures were damaged during a film shoot. Well, that was then. As of now, Sachin Kundalkar’s Bollywood directorial debut has become the first film after the blanket ban incident to receive the permission to shoot in the city’s oldest art institution. In fact, more than half of the shooting of the rom-com starring Rani Mukerji and South star Prithviraj took place inside the college premises. Turns out it was Prithviraj’s idea.

The actor plays a student studying painting at the prestigious institute and he insisted that to get the real feel of character, the shooting of the film should take place there as well. After long deliberations, the members of JJ School of Arts apparently agreed and gave the unit a special permission to shoot in the college’s vicinity.

On contacting, the spokesperson for the film confirms the news and says, “Yes, we have shot many scenes in the premises of JJ School of Arts as the scenes in the film demanded so. However, it wasn’t easy to get the permission. We just consider ourselves lucky. Now the film looks complete with the actual location in the background."