Produced by: Bhoomika Aggarwal
Designed by: Manoj Kumar
The trailer for ‘Gadkari’, a biopic on Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways Nitin Gadkari, was released at an auditorium in his hometown Nagpur’s Civil Lines. The Marathi film comes months ahead of the Lok Sabha Elections 2024
Actor Rahul Chopra plays the titular role of Nitin Gadkari in the film written, directed and produced by Anurag Ranjan Bhusari. As per reports, most of the crew members are associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), an organisation which Gadkari says has given him "sanskars" or values
Also starring Aishwarya Dorle, Abhilash Bhusari and Trupti Kalkar, the biopic on Union Minister Nitin Gadkari is set to release on October 27 in theatres
Nitin Gadkari was born to a Marathi couple Jairam Gadkari and Bhanutai Gadkari in Nagpur. He always had an inclination towards politics. During his adolescence, he started working for the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha and the student union Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). Alongside, he completed M.Com. and LL.B. from the Nagpur University
Involvement in student politics paved the foundation for Nitin Gadkari's political career. Greatly influenced by the teachings of Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, the RSS founder who was also based out of Nagpur, Gadkari joined RSS at an early age
Nitin Gadkari joined the BJP and was elected as the State Minister of PWD of Maharashtra from 1995 to 1999. He has been credited with restructuring the entire body during his tenure. He strongly supported privatisation in the state resulting in all-weather road connectivity across Maharashtra, which connected the remote villages to the mainland and helped in the development of the rural areas. He facilitated the construction of 55 flyovers in Mumbai to ease traffic congestion
The then-Indian PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee appointed him as the parliamentary Chairman of the National Rural Road Development Committee. He was the brain behind the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana for which he was awarded the Late Madhavrao Limaye Award by Public Library Nashik, for Most Efficient Member of Parliament for 2020-21
Due to his far-reaching ambitions and the impact of his political work, Gadkari became the youngest-ever President of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2009. During his tenure, Gadkari co-authored the book India Aspires, in which he wrote about his developmental ideas
Nitin Gadkari resigned as the BJP President in 2013 and went on to win the Union Elections in 2014. He was appointed as the Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways and Minister of Shipping. As per the book Marching with a Billion, Gadkari increased the pace of road creation in the country from 2 km/day to 16.5 km/day in his first year and to 21 km/day in the second year and to 30 km/day by the end of 2018
During the second tenure of the PM Narendra Modi-led government, Nitin Gadkari retained the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and increased the pace of constructing highways to 36 km per day in 2020. He thus gained the tag of 'Expressway Man of India'
During the Business Today Banking & Economy Summit 2023, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said, "By December, there will be new highways wherein travel time from Delhi to Chandigarh will be 2.5 hours, Delhi to Amritsar 4 hours, Delhi to Katra 6 hours, Delhi to Srinagar 8 hours, and Delhi to Mumbai 12 hours, Delhi to Jaipur 2 hours and Chennai to Bangalore also 2 hours."
Addressing the Aaj Tak G20 summit in New Delhi, Gadkari said, “The Delhi-Mumbai Expressway will be launched by February 2024 and the travel time between the two cities will be reduced to 12 hours.”
After successfully building an intensive network of highways across the country, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari is now focused on the production of ethanol, as he champions the green fuel and use of Hydrogen-based vehicles in India. He spoke about the same at the BT Banking & Economy Summit 2023