Bombay Railway - Season 1

Documentary about Bombay's vast suburban rail network, which serves six-and-a-half million commuters every day. As Bombay's population swells by tens of thousands each week, the railway and the people whose lives revolve around it struggle to cope with the pressure and the peaktime 'super-dense crush load'. From the train driver to the illegal hawker and the homeless shoe-shine boy, each has a story to tell about this remarkable railway system, often described as the lifeline of India.

India is undergoing unprecedented growth and Bombay is its financial powerhouse. The city promotes itself as a positive vision of the future, a place where dreams can come true. Like an extended family, the Bombay railway provides an unfailing lifeline to the city. This series follows the hope and dreams of some the people who work for the railway.

Hans Dev Sharma is a senior operations clerk. He works in the timetabling department, which schedules over 2,000 trains a day - under its cultural quota, Hans Dev Sharma was talent-spotted as an exceptional actor and dancer and the railways offered him a job. Hans is living the Bollywood dream, with Bombay Railways as his life and his stage. But will he get his big break?

Jagdish Paul Raj was born in Bombay and is as ambitious as the city he lives in. The son of a railway catering officer, Jagdish, like his father, always had an interest in food but none in the railway. He graduated in politics and economics and became a fully-qualified chef. Now 31, he is running a successful catering business on the train to Goa. He is tendered for more trains, but will he be successful?

Mumtaz Kazi is Indian Railways' first fully-qualified female train driver and has driven trains all over India. Mumtaz was brought up in a traditional Muslim family - a railway family. Now her father has retired and her immediate family live in Canada - Mumtaz is the only member left in Bombay. It will be Mumtaz's responsibility to find a wife for her brother, to get him married and back to Canada in just eight weeks. Can she do it and still drive the train?