The Railway Men: Babil Khan, R Madhavan And Kay Kay Menon Talk About Series Based On Bhopal Gas Tragedy
In an exclusive chat with ABPLive, Kay Kay Menon, Babil Khan and R Madhavan discussed their new web series.
New Delhi: In their first foray into web-series production, Yash Raj Films presents ‘The Railway Men’, a story about the 1984 Bhopal gas leak disaster via the actions of the Indian Railways. Director by Shiv Rawail, the series has an impressive cast including Kay Kay Menon, Divyenndu Sharma, Babil Khan and R Madhavan.
A lesser-known element of the Bhopal gas tragedy is highlighted in this four-part series, which shows how Indian Railways workers battled overwhelming odds to rescue hundreds of trapped citizens as the city fell apart around them.
In an exclusive chat with ABPLive, the actors discussed their new web series.
Talking about their characters, Kay Kay Menon shared, "I am playing a stationmaster. Simple guy, diligent and obsessed with his work." R Madhavan shared, “I am playing the general manager of railways of Northern Central Line and what he does when he comes to know that this big tragedy happening in Bhopal and how he listens to his heart and does in one second makes a common man also become a superhero.” Babil Khan shared, “I'm playing a local pilot who has had a journey in his life where he's dealt with a lot of pain.”
When asked if there is any clash working with experienced actors like Madhavan, Menon said, “There is a certain maturity about actors. They're very safe and secure in what they're doing. We are actors who want to play characters and whatever the person is doing in that series is their job. So, it's nothing to do with clash, we are professional actors."
Director Shiv Rawail talked about the research part of 'The Untold Story Of Bhopal 1984 - The Railway Men'. He said, “We heard a lot of anecdotes from all over the place, from multiple sources talking to people on the ground in Bhopal. We picked all these stories and gave them to these beautiful characters and that's how we build these characters. A lot of the incidents are based on stories that we heard and stories that were based on reality. All the research for them came from the script.”
Menon said that shooting was ‘physically taxing’ while Babil felt that working with an ensemble cast is ‘much easier’ because ‘you're surrounded by such great actors.’
Babil, being the youngest on the set, talked about his experience working with the talented actors. He said, "I didn't know they (Madhavan and Menon) were helping me. I realised later when I experienced since it's been two years now since we shot the film.”
Discussing about how they expect the audience to react after watching the series, the National Award-winning actor said, “I really hope they like this. I hope that we are able to throw light on an incident that is considered one of the largest industrial disasters of the world. Also, the fact that how a common person does a simple job carries such an important aspect. It’s about negligence and people not being concerned or you know following safety norms. I just hope that when you see a series like this at least makes a few people realise the kind of power they hold in either saving or destroying people's lives.”
Kay Kay Menon said, “I am expecting people to have an experience of what people went through that night. It would be great if they can smell it as well.”
‘The Railway Men’ is set to debut on Netflix on November 18.
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