DMRC documentary film on Phase-III challenges bags award at 68th National Film Awards

A documentary film on the challenges faced by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation during the expansion work done under Ph-III of the network, has won an award at the 68th National Film Awards for 2020 announced on Friday, officials said.

The film 'Surmounting Challenges' produced by the DMRC, has won in the category of the Best Promotional Film Award (Non-Feature Film), they said.

"This is the second time that a film made by the DMRC has received such a recognition. A film on the engineering challenges faced by the Delhi Metro during its Phase-II work had also won the National Award in the 'Best Promotional Film (Non-Feature Film)' category in 2012.

"'The Dream Fulfilled - Memories of the Engineering Challenges' had won the prestigious 'Rajat Kamal' award and was conferred to the film by the then President, an official statement said.

'Surmounting Challenges' -- the 28-minute non-feature film deals with the various construction-related challenges faced by the DMRC during its third phase of expansion.

In Phase-III, the corporation constructed about 190 km of new lines, and had to encounter innumerable challenges, such as construction in the congested localities of old Delhi, route passing through extremely busy road intersection at Ashram, and constructing Delhi Metro's deepest station at Hauz Khas.

Extensive shooting of various locations along with retrieval of relevant archival footage had to be done to make the film a reality, the Delhi Metro had earlier said.

The film is available on DMRC's official YouTube channel.

Anticipating the making of the film, the entire construction process was documented in the form of videos and photographs for about five to six years across all under-construction corridors since the commencement of the work, the DMRC said.

"Along with editing and other post-production requirements, the making of the film took over a year's time. It is also an important document for transit rail engineers and researchers as it sheds light on a variety of issues that construction of such mammoth infrastructure encounter," it said in a statement.

With the help of new-age graphics and interviews of the engineers who executed the difficult project, the film brings to light the massive effort put in by DMRC to expand the Metro footprint in the National Capital Region (NCR), the urban transporter said.

"It is indeed rare for films of such nature to get such prestigious awards and screenings. DMRC has always tried to archive its work in the best possible way so that the record remains for posterity in the public domain," the DMRC said.

The film was earlier screened at the prestigious Indian Panorama section of the 52nd International Film Festival of India (IFFI) held in Goa from the November 20-28, 2021.

The documentary was also selected for screening at the 17th Mumbai International Film Festival under the Indian Panorama section, officials had said on June 2.