It is raining biopics in Bollywood! And even better, the directors are favouring young champions over those who are faded, fabled and forgotten because of the viewer’s growing interest in real-life heroes who continue to kick in popular culture.
Bollywood has churned out some spectacular biopics over the last couple of years from freedom fighters to politicians, sports to businessmen. Recently, it has steered towards bringing to life extraordinary stories of ordinary people. After the release of the biopic film Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, every filmmaker and producer wanted a bite of the cake and soon biopics became the rage.
Arjun Rampal, who played Arun Gawli in the recent biopic Daddy, expressed how it wasn’t a cakewalk to play the role. He said, ‘The level of responsibility towards fulfilling the commitment of staying close to proper facts becomes high. The facts and character traits are something that one has to research properly, understand, and try to get as close as possible. But at the same time, one needs to make it entertaining, because it’s a film at the end of the day. Maintaining this balance is a challenge for filmmakers and even for the actor.’
The actor talked about the real-life Gwali saying, ‘He isn’t someone I could go and just sit with every day. He’s in jail and serving a term. I met him quite a few times and in those three to four meetings, I tried to know him as a person… Also, I feel that allowing a biopic to be made on your life requires guts. Everybody wants a movie made on them, but there are certain things that they always want from it. Not to forget the legal issues to be tackled. Before Daddy saw the light of day, many people had started raising questions, which needed to be taken care of.’
Clearly, making a biopic is not an easy job, it makes one wonder what the challenges are when the subject of the biopic is among us, giving viewers a clear point of reference and, perhaps, putting more pressure on the filmmakers.
Vikas Bahl is making a biopic on Anand Kumar, the mathematician famous for his work in the innovative education program, Super 30. ‘Getting the mannerism and expression right is very important so that one becomes the mirror image of the [real-life person] he or she is portraying. It’s not fiction, where you can do anything. That’s why Vikas Bahl is constantly in touch with me to understand my personality better.’ quoted Anand in an interview.
The interest biopics are generating makes sense that this year will witness several films based on true stories especially the sports personalities like PV Sindhu, Abhinav Bindra, Saina Nehwal and Mithali Raj. These national sports icons have worked laboriously and consistently to allow their fans to take pride and joy in their sporting exploits in the recent pasts. And the makers of the film are not leaving any stone unturned when it comes to showing the struggles, pains, failures, motivation and paths of success they went through.
Filmmakers have to put an effort to put forth the life that goes beyond the headlines and show the viewers those facets that they are not aware of, these fresh and real stories satiate the need of modern fandom.
Film critic Atul Mohan takes the middle path on the trend, saying, ‘No doubt the situation becomes tricky when the biopic is based on popular personalities who are alive. Filmmakers need to be as authentic and careful as possible, as the memories of these people are fresh in the audience’s mind.’
Interestingly, biopics are the flavour of the season in Bollywood this year. With the Ranbir Kapoor starrer Sanju, a biopic on controversial Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt has taken the box office by storm and Diljit Doshan-starrer Soorma, on the hockey star Sandeep Singh, getting critically acclaimed, the expectations from the biopic genre have raised the bars.
