The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) will build an exclusive archive at the Tindharia railway station of Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR) in memory of actor Dilip Kumar.

The actor, who passed away on July 7, had a special connect with the hills. He shot for many films in the region and played the main character in Tapan Sinha’s cult movie Sagina Mahato that was extensively shot in Tindharia, near the railway station and on the premises of the century-old railway workshop of the tiny hill town.

“Dilip Kumar was a legend of the film industry. We are fortunate that he had not only visited the places of Darjeeling hills on several occasions, but also did a movie on the premises of the railway property that is a World Heritage Site now. We would like to keep his memory alive with an exclusive archive of the late film actor at the railway museum in Tindharia,” said Subhanan Chanda, the chief public relations officer of the NFR.

Back in 1915, when the workshop for DHR locomotives, carriages and wagons was established at Tindharia. In 1999, the DHR toy train service, which runs between Siliguri and Darjeeling, was declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco. “We are collecting old photographs from the time of the Sagina Mahato shooting. We are also approaching people here and asking them if they can provide us with any memorabilia associated with Dilip Kumar,” the official added.

Those associated with the tourism industry in the region have welcomed this unique initiative.

“The archive will emerge as yet another attraction for tourists. There are many interesting stories associated with Dilip Kumar. Those, if brought to people creatively, can be a big draw,” said Raj Basu, a veteran in the north Bengal tourism industry. Basu narrated one such interesting anecdote. “When the film director and Dilip Kumar met the DHR officials to book the workshop for the shoot, they did not have the money as security deposit. The on-duty railway official deposited the cash.”

In another development, the NFR has launched a dedicated website nfrdhrbooking.in so that film production houses can obtain permission online for shooting on DHR properties.

“Time and again, films have been shot in toy trains and in other properties of Darjeeling Himalayan Railway. This website has been launched so that they can obtain the permission online for using an area or for chartering a toy train,” Chanda said.