Akshay Kumar is all set to turn saviour again. The Airlift (2016) actor will play the lead in the biopic of Jaswant Singh Gill, a mining engineer who rescued 65 miners trapped in a flooded coal mine in West Bengal’s Raniganj in 1989. The film will be directed by Tinu Suresh Desai, who has earlier helmed the Akshay-starrer National Award-winning film Rustom (2016).
Jaswant was born on November 22, 1939, in Amritsar. A Khalsa College alumnus, he was awarded Sarvottam Jeevan Raksha Padak by President Ramaswamy Venkataraman in 1991 for his heroic deed.
India’s first coal mine Raniganj was opened in 1774 after John Sumner and Suetonius Grant Heatly of the British East India Company acquired a licence for mining activities. The mine was nationalised in 1974 and was acquired by the Coal Mines Authority of India. On Wednesday, the Union Minister of Coal and Mines, Pralhad Joshi commemorated Jaswant on Twitter.