Shimla’s Bollywood station master
By Ravi Bali

HE belongs to Chandigarh and lives in Shimla but his heart is in Mumbai. R.K. Dutta, station master, Shimla railway station, is so fascinated with the tinsel town that he has gone out of his way to make friends with film personalities who visit the hill station from time to time. Meeting them and having his picture taken with them is nearly an obsession with him. Says the star-struck railway man, "I wanted to become a film star, but Lady Luck played hide and seek with my life and derailed my dreams. So instead of taking off as a Bollywood hero, I have landed on a platform. Railway tracks and hooting engines have become part of my life. But films and film stars are like veins and arteries of my body."

The result of his passion is that today he knows a battery of film stars. Some of them often ring him up and even exchange letters and greetings. He knows Sunny Deol so well that recently when he was in Shimla shooting for the film Kareeb with Neha, he was treated as a personal guest. He has also met film stars of yester year, including Rajesh Khanna, Vinod Khanna, Hema Malini, Tanuja etc. The famous comedian Asrani, who was recently in Shimla, describes Dutta as a very lively personality and has invited him to Mumbai. Lots of other film personalities also keep inviting him to Mumbai.

The station master has many a happy memory of time spent with stars. On New Year’s Eve last year, he was with Tina and Anil Ambani. He also knows Rani Mukherji and Mayuri Kanoongo personally.

"All my Bollywood activities are after office hours. I follow them and they invite me. It’s a long process but it is fun. I cannot describe it in words. Today, I am not a film star but I proudly acknowledge that I am the Bollywood’s station master in Shimla. Who knows tomorrow I might become a film star?" he says hopefully.

Dutta recounts his first visit to Mumbai to become a film star with gusto. "I did odd jobs for two years to finance my trip and then lied to my father about the purpose of the trip. I travelled in a truck free of cost in order to save money and then went from one studio to another to find work. But as I did not have a godfather, I was not entertained. Whatever, it was a great experience because I had an opportunity to see Dilip Kumar, Raj Kumar, Rajender Kumar, Tanuja and Hema Malini in flesh and blood."

He joined the Railways in 1974 and grasped at every opportunity to meet film personalities. In 1996, he was posted as a Station Superintendent at Shimla.

"The queen of hills has proved to be a gold mine for me because Shimla is a station where stars frequently come for shootings and private holidays. It’s easy to catch them here because most of them are fond of travelling from Kalka to Shimla by train. Sometimes the locations for shootings are on rail tracks, trains, and stations. Apart from this, I also keep in touch with all good hotels where stars shoot and stay," he says.