MUMBAI: With the Indian economy giving little hint of any revival, business jet charter companies are seeing users from a seemingly recessionproof segment emerge as a big client base — Bollywood.India’s film production companies are fast becoming the most active users of chartered business jets after companies and politicians, another recession-proof industry especially in election season.In their attempt to promote films across a vast country in a short span of time, companies such as Viacoms18, Dharma Productions and Yash Raj Films are skipping scheduled airlines and using the services of charter companies.“As Hollywood and Bollywood celebrities embark on promotional tours, studios will fly them on business jets in order to maximise their agendas. Since business jets can link cities nonstop on a flexible schedule, they become a very useful asset,” said Ian Moore, chief commercial officer, VistaJet International.The recent push for promoting films outside metros such as Mumbai and Delhi makes chartered flights even more important, said Prabhat Choudhary, head of Spice Bhasha, a company that specialises in marketing activities targeted at smaller cities and towns in India.“With charter flights, cities like Ahmedabad and Jaipur can be covered in a day and so can be Lucknow, Varanasi and Patna,” said Choudhary.Spice Bhasha has marketed films such as Bodyquard, Ishaqzaade, The Dirty Picture, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag and Shuddh Desi Romance for companies such as Yash Raj Films, Excel Entertainment and Balaji Motion Pictures.These movies were made at budgets of between Rs 15 crore and Rs 55 crore and earned revenue up to six times their costs. A significant chunk came from smaller towns. This trend’s also reflected in several Bollywood hits over the past few years being set in towns and villages in the hinterland. Gangs of Wasseypur was filmed in Dhanbad, Ishaqzaade was shot in Hardoi and Lucknow and the more recent Shuddh Desi Romance in Jaipur.Ritesh Sidhwani, director of production house Excel Entertainment, said a film’s stars often have to cover 10 cities in a span of four days while promoting a film.“The only way to achieve this is with the help of a charter, considering routes and a strict time schedule of approximately three hours in a particular city,” said Sidhwani.According to Rajeev Wadhwa, chairman and managing director of Baron Luxury and Lifestyle, one such round trip covering three cities in a mid-sized jet would cost a company Rs 17 lakh to Rs 22 lakh.Baron sells business jet flights through annual memberships costing Rs 25 lakh to Rs 2 crore.The company gets seven-eight such queries in a month, of which two-three result in assignments, accounting for about a fourth of revenue, he said. Apart from film production companies, event management companies are also big users of chartered flights, using them to ferry stars for shows in India and abroad.“We do find it convenient for various reasons. For one, it becomes easier to manage multiple projects in a day,” said Sabbas Joseph, director, Wizcraft International Entertainment. “It also helps to fit schedules better. Also, such events call for high security, which could be an inconvenience to the general public, hence security can be more efficiently managed and organised on chartered planes.”The promotional tour flights usually have only the lead actors, the director and the producers on board. Standards of service have to be high. A flight for the promotion of a film starring one of the Khans had eight passengers with a different four-course meal for each, said an executive who didn’t want to be named. The food bill came to Rs 84,000.Oysters are in particular demand among several actors, said Atiesh Mishra, general manager of marketing at Taj Aviation, the Tata Group’s charter service. These tastes are catered to courtesy the company’s tie-up with Taj Hotels, he said.“We have actors who want a specific brand of linen, a singular make of the bed and heroines who won’t use any cutlery except Versace,” said the unidentified executive cited above. “They are also extremely fussy about the way the staff has to behave with them and ask for particular staff members to be repeated on all flights.”Tantrums are not unheard of. The executive cited the instance of a top actor getting into a brawl with his producer, forcing the cancellation of one leg of the trip, for which approval had been obtained from the airport authorities.Private jet operators have a tough time operating to smaller cities, where airports have a limited amount of parking slots and not enough staff to manage both scheduled and chartered flights.Sometimes, the tour itself is an event and becomes part of the promotion. For instance, during the promotional tour of Agneepath last year, Sanjay Dutt would change his clothes on every leg of the flight so it would look like the trip took place across several days in the coverage, said an executive who didn’t want to be named.Film companies also offer barter deals to defray costs. “We are told that for a hefty discount, our names will be mentioned in the credits of the film as travel partners, which would give us free publicity,” said an executive.With stars getting accustomed to such travel, production houses have discovered another way to keep them happy.“This morning we got a call from a production company that wanted to gift our Gold Card (membership) worth Rs 50 lakh to an actor,” said Wadhwa.