Ahead of 2024 polls, biopic on Gadkari talks up the ‘highway minister’s’ PM potential – ThePrint – Select

Mumbai: Union Minister Nitin Gadkari helped carve out the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) victory in 2014 and was poised to become prime minister, but allegations of graft and infighting perhaps dented his prospects. This is a prominent subtext in the newly released biopic on Gadkari’s life, titled Gadkari, produced by Akshay Deshmukh Films and directed by debutant Anurag Ranjan Bhusari. 

Now, months ahead of another Lok Sabha election, the Marathi film released Friday outlines Gadkari’s political journey from a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) karyakarta to his thumping victory in his debut election to the Lok Sabha. It talks up the Nagpur MP’s intent, potential and achievements as well as his political acumen. 

The film highlights how Gadkari, often called the “flyover minister” and “highway man”, supposedly revolutionised the creation of public transport infrastructure in India by implementing the Mumbai-Pune Expressway project on a ‘build, operate, transfer’ basis in the 1990s, when not many in the country understood the model. The biopic also brings out his love for food, the humble samosa being his favourite. 

Speaking to PTI last week, director Bhusari said, “There is no superman treatment given to the character. Everyone has ups and downs in life. I have covered everything which was part of his life.”

But, the film has a running message — that Gadkari’s work is enough to ensure consistent electoral victories for him. He doesn’t need any rigorous campaigning or godfather. 

“Elections toh mein jeet hi jaunga (I will definitely win the election),” Gadkari is seen telling a journalist in the film ahead of a Lok Sabha election while he is away on vacation with his family. Whether this is in the context of the 2014 or 2019 election is unclear. 

Gadkari contested his first Lok Sabha election in 2014, defeating the Congress’s Vilas Muttemwar to win the Nagpur seat by a fat margin of 2.84 lakh votes, according to Election Commission records. He retained the seat in 2019 with a slightly smaller margin of 2.16 lakh. 

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PM candidate 

The biopic chronologically charts out Gadkari’s political life. At one point, in 2012, the film shows two young men chatting with each other over a cup of tea. One asks the other if he thinks Gadkari will be the next prime minister. The second man replies saying it seems like it, but we’ll have to see what happens. 

The scene is juxtaposed with Gadkari — who became the BJP’s national president in 2009 — leading his party from the front, preparing it for elections, with a background commentary on how the BJP’s influence is on the rise. 

A second scene in the same sequence shows three other men from Nagpur also discussing Gadkari’s prime ministerial potential. 

The conversations about Gadkari’s prime ministerial qualities in the biopic are soon followed by graft allegations against the Nagpur-based leader in connection with companies linked to him. Gadkari, played by Rahul Chopda, is seen clarifying to a journalist that none of these companies were involved in any wrongdoing. Alluding to reports of infighting within the BJP at the time, the journalist also questions Gadkari about complaints from within the party related to his working style, such as calling for meetings late in the night.

Gadkari eventually stepped down as BJP president in 2013. 

Ahead of the 2019 election, Gadkari reportedly made a controversial remark about people thrashing political leaders who don’t fulfil the promises they make to the people. The Opposition alleged that Gadkari’s remarks were directed at Modi and that the Nagpur leader had prime ministerial ambitions for himself. Gadkari denied harbouring any such aspirations, although his supporters in Nagpur were eager to see him in the role. 

In the second term of the Modi government, Gadkari is perceived to be steadily losing capital. In the 2021 cabinet reshuffle, the Modi government took away the micro, small and medium industries portfolio from Gadkari and gave it to Narayan Rane, newly appointed as minister. Then, last year, the BJP dropped Gadkari from its parliamentary board. 

In August this year, a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General flagged the high cost of construction of the Dwarka Expressway, further raising questions about Gadkari’s position in the government. His ministry had challenged the report as “erroneous”.

Also read: Why minister Nitin Gadkari is thinking about quitting politics

Highway man

The biopic shows how Gadkari, as Maharashtra’s PWD minister in the 1990s, pushed the Mumbai-Pune expressway project through when everyone was incredulous about his plans — the then Chief Minister Manohar Joshi, Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray,  industrialist Dhirubhai Ambani and even journalists. 

At one point, Gadkari is shown saying that he would shave his moustache if he failed to build the expressway on a build, operate, transfer model.

“I play on the front foot. If someone gives me a no ball I hit a six, I don’t get run out,” Gadkari says in the film while talking about his confidence in the expressway project. 

The expressway opened for operations in 2002 and was built at a cost of Rs 1630 crore. The original estimate for the project was Rs 3,600 crore. In the film, a confident Gadkari is shown saying he would get the project implemented at a cost of Rs 1,600 to Rs 2,000 crore. 

In the film, after the expressway’s groundbreaking ceremony, Gadkari’s wife says, “You have won Mumbai and come back.”

The biopic, however, had a tepid response in Maharashtra’s capital city, Mumbai, with some theatres cancelling shows due to poor response. 

In 2019 too, Gadkari’s Lok Sabha campaign was centred on his work as a Union minister, focussing on how he drove the creation of long highways and expressways across the country — in contrast with most BJP candidates, who heavily campaigned on Modi’s name. 

Now, ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the biopic seeks to highlight all these factors that Gadkari’s supporters cite while talking about why the leader has prime ministerial potential. He is talked up as the infrastructure man. He is shown to believe that one must maintain good relations even with political rivals as ‘haar jeet toh hoti rehti hain (winning and losing is all part of the game). At one point, he is shown reading Mahatma Gandhi’s autobiography. He is also always shown to be among the people, trying to resolve their issues even when in the Opposition.

(Edited by Rohan Manoj)

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