59 people were killed when a coach of the Sabarmati Express was set on fire in Gujarat's Godhra in 2002.
No train coach was set on fire in Vadodara to recreate the 2002 burning of Sabarmati Express at Godhra as part of a documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Railway officials and crew members of a film production company said Monday.
Their clarification came after reports that an unused railway coach was set ablaze at Pratapnagar station in Vadodara on Sunday, during the enactment of the Godhra train burning incident.
However, both the Western Railway (WR), under whose jurisdiction the Vadodara division falls, and the production house involved in the film refuted the reports.
According to crew members supervising the shooting, a damaged coach, used for mock drills by the Railways, was provided by the authorities to recreate the burning of S-6 coach of the Sabarmati Express at Godhra by a mob on February 27, 2002.
"We are shooting a biopic documentary depicting life and times of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This documentary film will be released only on social media.
"We are using a damaged railway coach, used for mock drills, to recreate the Godhra train burning incident," said
Jayraj Gadhvi, a supervising executive of the film. Dhaval Pandya, a senior executive overseeing the shooting, clarified that the coach was not set on fire Sunday as claimed in some media reports.
"We had not set the coach on fire yesterday as claimed by some newspapers. After shooting that damaged coach in the same condition, we will apply special effects during editing to show it burning.
Western Railway PRO (Vadodara division) Khemraj Meena also refuted the media reports and maintained a damaged coach was used in the shooting.