India Objects To Hollywood Film On Bhopal Gas Tragedy
By SAMPURNTuesday, June 22, 2010
June 22, 2010 (Sampurn Wire): The upcoming Hollywood film Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain based on the Bhopal gas tragedy in India, is now facing objection from a survivor group in India. They think that the film will give a clean chit to the US Company blamed for the tragedy, which was the worst industrial accident in the world.
The film stars Martin Sheen and is directed by the Indian filmmaker Ravi Kumar. Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain is set to release in December. The aftermath of the gas leak in 1984 is the focus of the film. The incident took more than ten thousands of lives in Bhopal.
Sheen will be essaying the role of Warren Anderson, the chief executive of Union Carbide, which ran the factory. Anderson is now considered a fugitive in India, where he is charged of negligence.
Rachna Dhingra, an activist from the Bhopal Group for Information and Action, said, “Many facts have been presented in a wrong way and the director seems to be trying to validate the action and decisions taken by Warren Anderson.”
Dhingra has said that she has not seen the movie yet but she read the script. She added, “We won’t allow anyone to misrepresent the facts.”
Rachna Dhingra and her group are willing to meet the filmmakers and ask for changes in the film.
In an interview to a news channel, the actor Sheen said that he does not sympathize with his fellow American Anderson. He thinks Anderson is indeed guilty as he ran away from India in the aftermath of the accident’s
On December 2, 1984, the incident took the lives of thousands. Forty tonnes of toxic gas leaked out from the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal and spread to the surrounding residential areas.
– Sampurn Wire
