Despite success of film made on Mountain Man Dashrath Manjhi, his family members continue to live in poverty

By Gaurav Arora
Gaya (Bihar) [India], April 11 : Even though the movie made on the life of Dashrath Manjhi, renowned as the 'Mountain Man', garnered accolades, there is no change in the lives of his family members who still continue to grapple with poverty.
The family claims that the filmmakers of 'Manjhi - The Mountain Man' made huge promises but forgot them once the shooting concluded.
The Ketan Mehta directorial was released in 2015 and starred Nawazuddin Siddique in the titular role along with Radhika Apte and Tigmanshu Dhulia.
Bhagirath Manjhi, son of Dasrath Manjhi opened up on the family's living conditions stating that they continue to struggle, overlooked by those associated with the film.
Speaking to ANI, Bhagirath Manjhi said, "Our father was very poor, he worked in the fields. He built the road by breaking the mountain. For this, he had to sell three of his goats after which he purchased a hammer. Everyone in the village used to say that he had gone mad. The road was built in 22 years."
Dashrath Manjhi, known as 'Mountain Man', was a resident of Gehlaur village in Gaya district, who worked as a daily wage labourer. In an unfortunate incident, he was not able to take his wife to the hospital for treatment due to which she died.
Hit by the tragedy, he vowed to build a proper road in the area. Despite having no support from the village and defying all odds, Manjhi carved a road by cutting a 360 feet-long, 30 feet wide and 25 feet high mountain using a chisel and hammer.
Bhagirath Manjhi said that the movie team only gave the family Rs 50,000 which was way too little to fulfil their needs, as a result of which they are still forced to work as wage labourers.
"The team stayed for a month and gave only Rs 50,000. If we had got money, we would have built a house, they made crores by making a film on our father but we got nothing. We used to work as labourers earlier and we do it even today. There has been no change," he said.
He further claimed that his family was promised an election ticket from Gaya by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, but was not given.
"After building the road, my father decided to meet Nitish Kumar. He had to sit for an hour to meet him finally," Manjhi said.
"My father never asked for anything from anyone. But, we asked for a parliamentary ticket. CM Nitish Kumar also promised us a ticket from Gaya. But after Jitan Ram Manjhi joined NDA, we did not get the ticket," he added.
Bhagirath Manjhi said that the family did receive some help from Bihar leader Pappu Yadav, who recently merged his Jan Adhikar Party (Loktantrik) with the Congress, but even that help stopped after around a month.
Even today, Manjhi Mahotsav is organized every year in his name. A road named 'Dashrath Manjhi Marg' has been named after him and his village has been named Dashrath Nagar.
Dashrath Manjhi may be known as a great man for the people of Bihar and outside Bihar, but even today his family lives in a hut in Gehlaur village.
But, irrespective of how successful the acclaimed movie was, the family of 'real-life' Mountain Man continues to work as wage labourers to sustain a life in poverty.