'Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain' to run tax free in Madhya Pradesh

A film on the Bhopal gas tragedy of 1984, Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain, releasing in the country on Friday, has been made tax-free in Madhya Pradesh.

Making announcement to this effect last night, chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said the film was "very sensitive". "Such tragedy should never take place in any city of the world and development should never take place at the cost of human being's existence," he said after watching its premiere at a local Cineplex on the occasion of 30th anniversary of the world's worst industrial disaster in which thousand of people lost their life following a gas leak from a factory.

Chouhan also praised the director and actors of the film for their "heart-rending" performance. Set amidst the real-life Bhopal disaster that had occurred on December 2–3, 1984, the movie, directed by Ravi Kumar, is a narration of the story from perspective of a rickshaw driver in Bhopal, played by actor Rajpal Yadav.

Its crew include Tannishtha Chatterjee, Manoj Joshi, Martin Sheen, who plays the role of then Union Carbide chairman Warren Anderson, and Mishca Barton, a reporter.

The film was released in the US on November 7.