Bollywood has over the years considered Akshay Kumar to always lift them up and rescue the industry during low phases. And seems like the story continues on screen too. After playing a man who brings Indians home from a war-torn country in Airlift, the actor is now set to play Sardar Jaswant Singh Gill, who rescued miners in an operation in 1989.
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Backed by Pooja Entertainment, the film will tell the heroic real life story of Jaswant Singh Gill, a mining engineer, who under difficult circumstances saved 65 miners. It was known as India’s first coal mine rescue. To commemorate the day, November 16 was marked as ‘Rescue Day’
Akshay Kumar expressed his excitement about playing the real hero. Replying to the union minister of coal and mines tweet about Jaswant Singh Gill, Khiladi Kumar wrote, “Grateful to you @JoshiPralhad ji, for recalling India’s first coal mine rescue mission – this day 33yrs ago. मेरा सौभाग्य है कि मैं #SardarJaswantSinghGill जी का किरदार अपनी फ़िल्म में निभा रहा हूँ. It’s a story like no other!”
Producer Vashu Bhagnani called it an honour and privilege to be able to showcase this story through his film. “Remembering Late #SardarJaswantSinghGill on this day, who rescued the lives of miners who were stuck in the coal mines of Raniganj under very difficult circumstances. It is indeed an honour and privilege to showcase his heroic act in our next film,” he tweeted.
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Grateful to you @JoshiPralhad ji, for recalling India’s first coal mine rescue mission – this day 33yrs ago.
मेरा सौभाग्य है कि मैं #SardarJaswantSinghGill जी का किरदार अपनी फ़िल्म में निभा रहा हूँ. It’s a story like no other!@easterncoal— Akshay Kumar (@akshaykumar) November 16, 2022
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The film will reunite Akshay with Rustom director Tinu Suresh Desai. The edge-of-the-seat drama is scheduled for a release in 2023.
As readers would remember, in July this year, the first look of Akshay Kumar was released, while the team was filming in London. It showed Akshay flaunting a thick beard and a turban to complete his sardar look.
Who was Jaswant Singh Gill?
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Born on November 22, 1939, at Sathiala in Amritsar, Jaswant Singh Gill had studied at Khalsa School and graduated from Khalsa College in 1959. The Amritsar-based engineer played a significant role in rescuing miners trapped inside a flooded coal mine in Raniganj, West Bengal. On the fateful day of November 16, 1989, miners were breaking coal walls by triggering blasts at the Mahabir colliery of Eastern Coalfield Limited. As an adjacent underground water table cracked, water gushed in and started drowning them. Out of 220 miners, six miners died on the spot. Gill then jumped inside and helped rescue the remaining 65, in a six-hour-long long dangerous ordeal.
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On Rescue Day, we commemorate the act of bravery of late Sardar Jaswant Singh Gill. He rescued 65 trapped coal miners 33 years ago on this very day. He will be remembered forever. pic.twitter.com/yfQOxN4xQe
— Eastern Coalfields Limited (@easterncoal) November 16, 2022
Jaswant Singh Gill died on November 26, 2019, leaving behind his wife and four children. He was awarded Sarvottam Jeevan Raksha Padak by the then president Ramaswamy Venkataraman. A chock in Majitha Road, Amritsar was also named after him.
Last year, there were murmurs of a film being made on his heroic act. Along with Akshay, actor Ajay Devgn and Vicky Kaushal’s names also surfaced to play the lead role in the biopic. As per a report in The Tribune, his son Dr Sarvpreet Singh Gill had said his father had entered into an agreement with the makers and had given all rights to director Dharmendra Suresh Desai who had visited the family recently. He also informed how the team had planned to shoot a part in Amritsar and Khalsa College too. It’s unknown why the said deal fell flat and how Pooja Entertainment came into the picture.
