A documentary on Bade Miyan - Chotey Miyan?

A documentary on Bade Miyan - Chotey Miyan?

Sanket Upadhyay

The two track veterans, a metre gauge and a broad gauge steam loco pulled trains, chugged past each other enticing thousands on board. And now, the North Western Railway (NWR) plans to make a documentary film on the event that they termed as “undone by any railway zone in the world”.

Railway sources said that the entire event, that took place on October 1 this year to mark the first anniversary of North Western Railway Zone, was shot using about five digital cameras.

“We have more than 10 hours of raw video footage with us. Now, we are planning to do some editing ourselves and scale it down to a 30 minute documentary with some of the best shots,” said a senior railwayman.

He added that the scripting and narration, tentatively in English language would be mostly an in house affair. “We have chopped down the film to a few hours. After the final half an hour movie is ready, we would be putting a voice over.”

Senior Deputy General Manager NWR, SB Gandhi, confirming the documentation of the event told Hindustan Times: “We would primarily be screening the film to our staff members, bureaucrats and ministers.” However, he denied in house rumours that the film might be aired on Discovery Channel.

The railways may capture the event on tape and show it to parties propagating the excitement the event carried, but they themselves admit that the film would be socks compared to the memories of those who are still lingering in the aura of the race.