Director Shiv Rawail shares thoughts on ‘The Railway Men’

First-time director Shiv Rawail says he aimed to instil a sense of hope in viewers with “The Railway Men,” a web series centred on the 1984 Bhopal gas leak tragedy, considered the “darkest night in modern Indian history.”
Making his debut with the series, Shiv premiered “The Railway Men” on Netflix on 18 November. The show features Kay Kay Menon, R Madhavan, Babil Khan, and Divvyendu. In a masterclass session at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) on Wednesday, the director emphasized that the beauty of the show lies in conveying the idea that there will be light at the end of the tunnel.
“You always want to leave with a sense of hope, respect, a little happiness in your eye, and you want to feel good about what you’ve seen. I think that even though the story is a tragedy, but if you can tell the story of the darkest night in modern Indian history through a lens of hope, courage, and that humanity will always exist and there always will be a light at the end of the tunnel, we thought that would be the most interesting thing,” Shiv, son of veteran filmmaker Rahul Rawail, said.
The director of the four-episode series said he is overwhelmed by the love coming his way for the show.
“We’re seeing love from every corner of the world. I feel there are a lot more dimensions in the story, and I’m sure they will be explored at some time at some point.
“But I think to let people into this world, with a sense that even in such a dark situation, there were people who rose up beyond their duty, beyond their responsibilities, their families, just so that you could save one life or more. I think that was the beauty of it. And that’s the sole reason why we did this,” he said.
“The Railway Men” primarily focuses on the Indian Railways employees who saved many lives during the fateful night of 2-3 December, 1984, after a highly toxic gas leaked from the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh.
“The fact that the show is streaming on Netflix and will be available in many countries was an added responsibility,” Shiv said.
“The West has always told Indian stories from a stereotypical lens,” he added.
“They (the colour palette of such films) were always very yellow and India would be very dirty in there. And I didn’t believe that India was like that. I felt that this (series) was going to Netflix and reach the corners of the world, and it is a story about a national tragedy. So I felt a responsibility to represent it in the best way possible.”