Balwant Yadav Aka The Express Bandit Bhopal Gas Leak: Netflix’s The Railway Men is a thriller drama series based on the 1984 Bhopal Gas Tragedy, which claimed the lives of more than sixteen thousand people, with over 5 lakh people affected by it in some way over the years. The gas tragedy weakened the immune systems of some people.
Directed by Shiv Rawail and written by Aayush Gupta, the series follows certain characters who act selflessly on the night of December 2, 1984, to save thousands of people. One of them is Divyendu Sharma’s character, Balwant Yadav, a notorious thief. Aside from Divyendu Sharma, we see K.K. Menon, R. Madhvan, and Babli Khan.
Balwant Yadav Aka The Express Bandit
Balwant Yadav is a thief who commits robberies on trains. He became so famous that people started calling him “The Express Bandit,” but his notorious work became difficult after the police got his sketch.
Balwant wants to do the last big robbery and leave the work. He planned to rob in Bhopal, disguising himself as a police constable to seek help from Iftekaar Siddiqui, the station master at Bhopal Junction. His big plan started to fail after the gas leak. Iftekaar asked for Balwant’s help to save lives, which Balwant didn’t deny, and he stopped being greedy to save lives.
Also Read: The Railway Men Episode 2: Recap, Summary and Explained
Is Balwant Yadav Based On A Real-life Person?
No, Divyendu Sharma’s character, Balwant Yadav, isn’t based on a real-life person. The character is entirely fictional and created only for the show.
Although Divyendu Sharma’s character wasn’t real, writer Aayush Gupta took inspiration from 1980s rail robberies, which became a serious social problem in India.