Trends in Bollywood come and go, but the trend of showing realism in cinema is going strong. Last two to three years have seen a deluge of biopics and there are more in store. It was films like Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, The Dirty Picture, Mary Kom, Manjhi: The Mountain Man that brought lives of real-life stars onto the 70mm screen in the past few years.
Airlift, Neerja, Sarbjit, Aligarh, Rustom, M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story and Dangal in 2016 and Sachin: A Billion Dreams and Poorna in 2017 are some of the many examples of how the trend was lapped up by the filmmakers. To add to the list there are upcoming movies like Arjun Rampal’s Daddy, Kirti Kulhari’s Indu Sarkar and Shraddha Kapoor’s Haseena: The Queen of Mumbai. Ranbir Kapoor is shooting for the biopic on Sanjay Dutt and Akshay Kumar shared the first look of Gold, a film on a newly-independent India’s first gold medal at the 1948 Olympic Games, while his Mogul —The Gulshan Kumar Story also will be among the big releases next year. Also on the anvil is the Nandita Das’ directorial that will see Nawazuddin Siddiqui transform into Saadat Hasan Manto. So, what brought this change?
Arjun Rampal’s Daddy
Ranbir Kapoor is shooting for the biopic on Sanjay Dutt
Shraddha Kapoor’s Haseena: The Queen of Mumbai
M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story
Director Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari says, “India is a land full of stories and we have begun to notice those stories. As real stories represent the aspirations of the common man, they are clicking.”
Ashwiny draws attention to how the mind of the cinephile also works as a consumer. “When a person shells out on a movie ticket, he wants to make the best choice. So a film that is inspiring, wins the mandate of the family members,” she points out.
So, is the inspirational nature of the biopics their selling point? Yes, says filmmaker Hansal Mehta. “The quest for new characters and stories has led us, filmmakers, to look for real and interesting lives. In the past too, fine films that showed real-life characters or incidents have been well received. But now we are noticing this trend more than ever.”
Along with films on legendary figures, biopics are also made on unsung heroes. On this, Mehta says, “When I made Shahid or Tigmanshu Dhulia made Paan Singh Tomar, there weren’t many movies being made on unsung heroes, but they are now. It’s a welcome change.”
The films that have not worked on box office, have managed to spellbound the critics. One such film was Budhia Singh — Born to Run.
Director Soumendra Padhi, however, says that the audience here is not ready to accept sad stories or fallen heroes and that’s why he believes films like Azhar and Main aur Charles did not click.
“All successful biopics are about achievers, but stories with protagonist with negatives shades haven’t done well. This is because big stars will never do a film on a fallen hero as it will not go with their image,” Soumendra concludes.
