Vadodara residents, on the morning of March 3, were greeted by an unusual sight — a burning railway bogie on the narrow gauge between Pratap Nagar and Dabhoi railway line. As per a report in The Indian Express by Aditi Raja, Aishwarya Mohanty, the burning bogie was part of a film shoot for the biopic on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to re-create the attack on the S6 coach of the Sabarmati Express on February 27, 2002, popularly known as the Godhra attack. Fifty-nine passengers — a majority of them kar sewaks returning from Ayodhya — were killed in this incident and it became the spark that led to the Gujarat riots.
Per The Indian Express report, the Western Railways and the Vadodara fire department had permitted the shoot. Western Railway PRO Khemraj Meena said, “Permission was given to shoot the documentary film here. It was shot at the narrow gauge Vishwamitri railway station. No rail traffic was affected in the process of the shoot and the bogie being used for the shoot was provided by us. It is a mock-drill bogie and was unused.”
A letter dated March 2, from Benchmark Production, Mumbai, signed by Jayraj Gadhvi, who is the supervising executive of the shoot in Gujarat, and addressed to the Chief Fire Officer of the Vadodara Municipal Corporation, sought fire engine at the spot of the film’s shoot. “On March 3, we are shooting a biopic (autobiography) documentary of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the old railway station of Pratap Nagar-Dabhoi railway line next to Zenith school. Please provide us with one fire tender along with staff at the location. We are willing to pay the fees for the service as decided by the Vadodara Municipal Corporation.”
Western Railway CPRO Ravindra Bhakar, however, told The Indian Express that the script the film’s production company showed his office had no mention of “Godhra”. “As far as I know, they wanted to shoot something recreating the Prime Minister selling tea on railway platforms. We go through the script and as a policy, do not permit anything that harms the image of Railways and the country. If they have set fire to rolling stock or damaged railway property, then we can claim their deposit, claim insurance etc. We make them sign indemnity bond as well,” he said. Divisional Railway Manager of Vadodara Devendra Kumar too noted that the incident would be investigated to check if the production company violated any permissions.
As per Gadhvi this biopic “captures the life of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.” Speaking to Express, he said, “This particular scene speaks of the challenges he faced. The Railways has given us the coach to shoot the scenes of the outside of the train, which shows the burning coach. However, the scenes from inside the train will be shot at a film set in Mumbai.”
As per a report in The Wire, while the official police version of what happened that morning on the Sabarmati Express was that the train burning was a pre-planned conspiracy to kill the kar sevaks; that theory has been questioned a lot over the years. While the coach was definitely attacked and pelted with stones, two reports by Justice Banerjee and the Hazards Centre indicate that the fire may have been an accident.
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Update: Railway officials and the production house said that no coach was burned for the filming, PTI reported on Monday evening.