Yash Raj Films, one of the leading production houses of Bollywood, is set to venture into the ever-growing digital content landscape of India with The Railway Men, a tribute to the railway workers at Bhopal station who are the unsung heroes of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy, the world’s biggest man-made industrial disaster.
YRF’s streaming content production division has been named YRF Entertainment and it will produce five high-profile projects to begin with in its first year. The Railway Men marks the maiden production by YRF Entertainment.
The Railway Men features four brilliant actors like R. Madhavan, Kay Kay Menon, Divyenndu Sharma, and Babil Khan. These four actors helm the show and the company will also announce the presence of several other powerful performers in due course of time. Debutant Shiv Rawail, who has been homegrown at YRF and is being mentored by Aditya Chopra, is set to direct.
YRF announced this project on the same day to salute the heroes of Bhopal who saved thousands of lives when the crisis hit the city 37 years back. Shiv will start the proceedings at YRF Entertainment with his content-forward one-season limited series about the resilience of the human spirit in the face of a disaster. The Railway Men started filming on December 1st, yesterday.
Akshaye Widhani, Senior Vice President of Yash Raj Films says, “The Bhopal Gas Tragedy is the world’s worst industrial disaster that has impacted scores of people since the tragedy struck the city 37 years ago. At YRF, we are constantly trying to develop the best compelling stories for the audience and this is our tribute to the unsung heroes of the tragedy who, despite saving thousands of lives on that fateful day, are still unknown to people across the world.”
Yogendra Mogre, Executive Producer at YRF Entertainment adds, “The Railway Men is our salute to their spirit, their courage, and their humanity. This is a story that needed to be told. We are not going to leave any stone unturned to ensure that this story reaches out to audiences, across the world, in the best possible way so that they can understand the depth of devastation that this tragedy has caused in India.”
In the late hours of December 2, 1984, methyl isocyanate gas leaked from a pesticide factory owned by the American Union Carbide Corporation. It has been reported that more than half a million people were poisoned that night and the official death toll exceeded 5,000. Thousands of survivors have said they, their children, and grandchildren are struggling with chronic health problems like cancer, blindness, respiratory, immune, and neurological problems as a result of the leak.
The Railway Men will stream on December 2, 2022, as a homage to humanity and colossal sacrifice in the wake of a crisis that shook the nation.
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