State-run Cama and Albless Hospital has denied filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma permission to shoot scenes for his movie on the 26/11 terror attacks on their premises.

On November 26, 2008, two security guards on duty — Baban Ughde and Bhau Narkar — were gunned down by one of the terrorists in the hospital.

Varma had found himself caught in the eye of the storm after he visited the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower along with then CM Vilasrao Deshmukh and his son, Riteish Deshmukh, a day after it had been cleared of the Pakistani terrorists. The public was not too pleased, thinking Varma was doing research for a film on the tragedy. The filmmaker had denied it then. However, the news about a movie being in the works had turned out to be true.

Apart from being denied permission from Cama Hospital, Varma was also told by the Taj Group and the Central Railways that he couldn’t shoot his movie on their respective premises.

In 2004, a women’s ward in St George’s Hospital was used to film a scene from the movie Bunty Aur Babli. For this, the patients had to be shifted to another ward, and shooting went on till 2am.

During this time, the doctors and nurses, instead of attending to the patients, stood to watch the shooting. Several activists had raised a hue and cry over this, and the government had passed a resolution banning the shooting of films in government hospitals. “Varma and his team recently approached Cama hospital for permission, but the government has passed a resolution which does not allow anybody to shoot films in the hospital. So there is no question about granting Varma permission,” said Dr TP Lahane, dean, Sir JJ Group of Hospitals.

According to sources, another reason permission was denied is that the hospital authorities don’t want to revisit the unfortunate incident, even if it’s through a film.

Varma, when asked about being denied permission, said, “We never had any intention of shooting there.”