Martin Sheen to bring Bhopal gas tragedy on silver screen

Apart from Colin Vaines's documentary, Martin Sheen-starrer Bhopal: A Prayer For Rain (BAPFR) also seems to be ready. Though the film was slated for a 2010 release, it has been delayed ever since.

In 1984, Bhopal, in Madhya Pradesh, made global headlines with the gas tragedy, which is also considered one of the world’s worst industrial disasters. Now, it seems that the event is set to grab people’s attention again as projects based on it — a documentary and feature film — have been conceptualised.

Recently, Coriolanus (2011) producer Colin Vaines has joined hands with Hamish McAlpine and Carole Siller to launch a production house, Broadstairs Films, that is planning to start a documentary titled Bhopal.

American trade magazine Variety confirms this, adding, that the documentary is about "one of the planet’s worst man-made disasters, when an American-owned pesticide plant leaked a deadly chemical gas over the densely packed slums of Bhopal in India. The gas killed up to 10,000 people, within hours, and 15,000 more have died in the aftermath."

On the other hand, the Martin Sheen, Mischa Barton-starrer Bhopal: A Prayer For Rain (BAPFR) also seems to be ready. Though the film was slated for a 2010 release, it has been delayed ever since.

Earlier this year, BAPFR’s new trailer was released before the film was screened at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. It was also screened at the Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) where director Ravi Kumar reportedly said that there have been “changes in response to the distributors” and also a scene would be removed since it was thought to be “too dramatic” for western audiences.

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