NEW DELHI: The Rajya Sabha TV running up a tab of Rs 12.5 crore on the making of commercial film “Raag Desh“ surprised vice-president M Venkaiah Naidu during a review of the functioning of the upper House broadcaster. Sources said Naidu was told the channel spent about Rs 375 crore since its inception in August 2011. Learning that an annual rent of Rs 25 crore was being paid for office premises in the capital and about Rs 3.5 crore for hiring cabs and housing keeping matters, Naidu directed that a comprehensive professional and expenditure audit be undertaken. Raag Desh , released this year, was produced by Gurdeep Singh Sappal, who was chief executive officer and editor-in-chief of Rajya Sabha TV . He was also officer on special duty to former VP Hamid Ansari .The film is based on Indian National Army trials, the joint court martial of its officers Col Prem Sehgal, Col Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon, Major Shah Nawaz Khan.TOI learnt that Naidu has asked officials to explore the possibility of owning an office complex rather than paying a huge rent. He was also surprised to know of expenditure incurred on hiring cabs.When Naidu asked why the channel has a large store of equipment, he was in formed that it was customary to send two teams whenever the vice-president was on foreign tour. He has asked the officials to ra tionalise the assets and ensure more efficient use. During the one-and-a-half hour-long review, Naidu raised queries regarding the original mandate of the channel, present content mix, reach of the channel, utilisation of manpower and other resources, expenditure under various heads and scope for rationalisation, a source said. He also suggested RSTV should be able to quantify the reach of the channel (vie wership) besides having systems for feed back on and evaluation of content.Naidu reportedly said that keeping in view the channel's mandate, efforts need to be made to expand RSTV's reach with a clear plan of action. He also suggested pos ibilities of synergy with Prasar Bharati may be explored through sharing of con tent generated for its fuller utilization.