Siddharth Roy Kapur to produce biopic on man who rescued lost pilgrims at Kumbh Mela

Producer Siddharth Roy Kapur has acquired the life story rights of Rajaram Tiwari — popularly remembered as ‘Bhule Bhatke Tiwari’ — a famed social worker who helped reunite lost pilgrims at the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad. Tiwari founded his lost-and-found service in 1946 and continued his work till his death in 2016. His son, Umesh Tiwari, is presently carrying forward his father’s legacy. 

An estimated 120 million people visited the last Kumbh Mela held in Allahabad in 2013 and the festival is recognised as one of the largest peaceful gatherings in the world. According to a press statement, Siddharth Roy Kapur visited Tiwari’s family and obtained the rights to his biopic. The cast and crew of the film are yet to be announced.

Roy Kapur Films has an interesting line-up of projects in 2019. These include Shonali Bose’s The Sky Is Pink, Vinil Mathew’s Sindbad, Sooni Taraporevala’s Ballet Boys and Mahesh Mathai’s upcoming biopic on astronaut Rakesh Sharma, starring Shah Rukh Khan. 

Before forming his own production house, Siddharth served as the CEO of UTV Motion Pictures, which was later merged into The Walt Disney Company India. He resigned from Disney in January 2017 and turned an independent producer. His most recent release was Pihu, directed by Vinod Kapri and co-presented with RSVP Movies.