The movie that rocked Indian Parliament

Courtesy: IndiaFM
Monday, March 27, 2006

The Parliament of India, one of the constitutional bodies created to discuss the 'significant and crucial issues' dealing with the country, must have never before had a discussion over the kind of issue it did on the 12th of March 1981. The topic of discussion was related to the B.R.Chopra's The Burning Train.

But why were the members of the parliament having a discussion about this movie? Were they deeply hurt with Mr. Chopra giving out such a flop or were the members so concerned about such a disastrous film that they decided to pen down central rules for Bollywood on "how not to make a film like The Burning train!" for the wellbeing of the citizens of India or did they finally realize that the stupid comedy and PJ's cracked by Yunus Pervez, T.P Jain, Jankidas and Group had the potential to cause Dysthymia even in a mentally healthy person?

Well though we think that these are some of hazardous issues which should be taken up for discussion ASAP, as the film is still being played freely on television, the members of the house were dealing something else the other day. It was about the loss the Indian railways went through due to this film. The railway ministry had allocated 8 coaches to B R Films for the shoot without settling the detailed terms and conditions for the use of the coaches in advance.

During the making of this film, in spite of using advanced technology like miniature models (remember the scene when the train finally crashes by the end of the film), the makers of the film ended up damaging three coaches and two dinning cars. Now definitely the railways must have not expected such a damage to occur in advance. The railway authorities aren't to be blamed here. Obviously after knowing that the film has five "heroes" including the dynamic duo of Jeetendra and Dharmendra, who have been thrust the responsibility of saving the train, the railway authorities must have been relaxed about the safety of the train coaches. But unfortunately, our heroes failed in their mission. With their heroic stunts, they somehow managed to save the passengers but gave the railway authorities the biggest fright of their life by not preventing the train from getting damaged.

Anyways, getting back to business, so many years past, the railways made a claim of Rs. 5.25 lakhs against B.R. Chopra for the damages occurred. But Mr. Chopra disputed the claim and called for arbitration. The arbitrator reduced the remuneration money to mere 1.14 lakhs only.

The final outcome was that the railways underwent a loss of more than 7 lakhs. After this major loss, it was obvious that the railway authorities did think twice before lending support to Bollywood projects, even if they starred superheroes like the He-Man and the Jumping Jack.

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