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Richard Attenborough

A screen shot from Gandhi with extra Aseem Chhabra as a passenger in the background on the train. In the foreground is Saeed Jaffrey (left) as Sardar Patel and Gunter Maria Halmer playing Herman Kallenbach.

Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi needed hundreds of thousands of extras. Meet one of them

Arts

In 1980, when director Richard Attenborough was shooting scenes for Gandhi, thousands of Indians volunteered for parts as extras. New York-based film critic Aseem Chhabra remembers getting a part as a passenger on the train that carried Gandhi back to Delhi.

Sir Richard Attenborough

Director and actor Richard Attenborough saw film as a powerful vehicle for change

Culture