Mumbai, Oct 17 : Starting life as an ordinary Jan Sangh activist to a Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha worker to a Bharatiya Janata Party leader to state and central minister and now acknowledged as the ‘Expressway Man of India’, Nitin Jairam Gadkari from Nagpur, has traversed long on political the fast lane.
On October 27, a Marathi biopic on the senior BJP leader entitled ‘Gadkari’ will hit the silver screens across Maharashtra, catapulting him to the ranks of eminents like the late Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray, the former Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Dr.Manmohan Singh, and present PM Narendra Modi, in the past few years.
The film dives deep into the life and times of the amiable and ever-smiling Gadkari, 66, who is popular not only among the BJP and NDA circles, but liked well even by the Opposition parties.
It also dwells on his long political journey, how he grabbed eyeballs as the PWD Minister in the Shiv Sena-BJP government of 1995-1999 (with CMs as Manohar Joshi and Narayan Rane) when he spearheaded the country’s first expressway linking Mumbai-Pune, and changing the face of travel between the two key cities.
He also took up the ambitious project to build 55 flyovers in Mumbai to ease road traffic and faced tonnes of sniggers, but today, after three decades he is proved prophetic.
Currently, despite having more than 150 flyovers in and around Mumbai, a Sea Link, an upcoming Coastal Road and a Mumbai Trans Harbour Link, the network of Metro Rail, tunnels, Monorail, etc., the pace of Mumbai traffic remains practically the same as it was three decades ago!
Not known to be a typical greedy politician working till the ‘next election’ and seeking votes with tall unkept promises, Gadkari is a no-nonsense administrator who demands time-bound performance, said a close family friend.
With the blessings of the RSS, Gadkari was also elected as one of the youngest BJP Presidents — in Maharashtra (April 2005 – December 2009) and all-India (December 2009 – January 2013), and is occasionally tipped for even the country’s top executive post.
In his current tenure as the Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways, the man from the ‘Orange Country’, is largely credited for revolutionising the Indian roads sector with a slew of projects implemented, underway or proposed, and the road network grew by 59 per cent in the past nine years, making his rivals go red.
His influence and influence on his job can be gauged even from the “Gadkari” teaser that goes: “Progressive India due to his visionary leadership: When this country is known for its roads, I can happily say I am Nitin Jairam Gadkari…”
The film stars Rahul Chopda in the lead role at Nitin J.Gadkari, Aishwarya Dorle as his wife Kanchan Nitin Gadkari, with the direction, story and screenplay by Anurag R.Bhusari, presented by Abhijit Majumdar and produced by Akshay A.Deshmukh.
“Gadkari’s life is indeed very inspiring… starting as an ordinary social and political worker to becoming an important Cabinet Minister… Both his personal and professional life are captured vividly in the film,” gushed Bhusari.
Gadkari is a die-hard votary for privatisation and even lauded by the World Economic Forum as the ‘Pioneer of Public-Private-Partnership’ in the Indian road sector.
The filmmakers promise a peek into some hitherto unknown aspects of Gadkari’s life and times that have made every modern road synonymous with his name.
(Quaid Najmi can be contacted at:[email protected])
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