Real life on reel

On July 17, the entire team that contributed to the making of Bhaag Milkha Bhaag had a grand party in Mumbai to celebrate the box office success of the film. After all, raking

in Rs 44 crore at the turnstiles in just six days is no mean feat. But this is not just about Rakyesh Mehra’s big hit in the biopic arena. It is about the huge sigh of relief from all those filmmakers who are in the queue to complete their biopics.

Take a look: Omung Kumar is now rushing ahead with his film on boxer Mary Kom; Bhavna Talwar wants to recreate the magic of Guru Dutt; Ekta Kapoor has reportedly struck a deal with ex-cricketer Mohammed Azharuddin; Manish Jha wants to make a film on ‘mountain man’ Dashrath Manjhi and has roped in Nawazuddin Siddiqui to play the lead; and Anurag Basu will start shooting his film on Kishore Kumar next year.

So what’s with this new biopics frenzy? Bollywood pundits ascribe it to the fact that unlike romance stories, comedies or action capers, biopics attract a wider range of audience, thus promising assured returns.

“There is also the fact that sometimes reality is more interesting than fiction. Especially if you are going to tell the tale of a person whose life has all the drama and emotion that you would want to convey through a big screen picture. As with Bhaag Milkha Bhaag which is the typical story of an underdog who overcomes so many struggles in life to be able to achieve a dream. Aren’t we all dreamers? Therefore, such films are able to connect with the audience. A viewer walks out of the cinema hall feeling positive about taking on challenges in life. If someone like Milkha Singh could do it, why not me?” explains trade analyst Komal Nahata.

Question Mehra about why he chose to make a film on Milkha Singh and this is what he has to say: “I was a sportsman of sorts while growing up and that’s how I knew about Milkha Singh. I chanced upon his autobiography in 2009 and that sparked off something in my sub-conscious mind.”

He later went to see Milkha Singh in Chandigarh, where they spoke for two hours. “He said many people had come to him with the same offer and even promised huge amounts of money but his main intention was to have a biopic that would inspire others to take to sports. He also narrated the tragic story of his childhood and how as a young boy of 12, just a few months before India’s independence in 1947, he witnessed the massacre of his entire family. Here was a story waiting to be told. We didn’t make this film with an eye on money. In fact, a portion of the profits will be used to set up a sporting foundation to train budding athletes,”Mehra shares.

And so Omung Kumar, with backing from producer Sanjay Leela Bhansali, is hoping that his film on Mary Kom with Priyanka Chopra will fetch an equally good response. “I don’t want to reflect on how the film will do at the box office. As of now, I just want to focus on being true to the story of Mary Kom,” is all that Kumar will say for now.

But Anurag Basu who has signed on Ranbir Kapoor to essay the role of Kishore Kumar is under no pressure. “Each film has its own karma. My job is to research the subject well because we are dealing with the story of a person about whom a lot is already known. You can’t goof up on that. And then it is for the actor to be able to bring that character to life in such a way that the audience will see him as Kishore Kumar,” he states.

But biopics need not just be about heroes. Taking a cue from Hollywood that has made scores of biopics on murderers and conmen too, coming soon is a film on Charles Sobhraj, directed by Prawal Raman. Not in favour of calling his film a biopic, Raman says it’s inspired by Sobhraj’s escape from Tihar Jail. The film is reportedly based on the accounts of two senior cops Amodh Kanth and Madhukar Zhende who nabbed Sobhraj in Goa and has Randeep Hooda playing the role of the serial killer. “Sobhraj, as is known, has been a colourful personality and the film is based on Farrukh Dhondy’s book The Bikini Murders. It will be a very different kind of film,” says a unit hand.

Not Just Bollywood

Elsewhere too, biopics are becoming the current craze. Director Nilesh Jalamkar is on his way to make a biopic in Marathi on Maharashtra’s ex-chief minister Vasantrao Naik. Titled Mahanayak, the film will have Chinmay Mandlekar playing the lead role.

“The story will focus on the 40-year-long political life of Naik which includes his 11-year tenure as the CM. For me, the most challenging part about the role will be portraying the mindset and driving force of the politician who said he would hang himself in Shaniwarwada if the drought issue wasn’t resolved. He was a true people’s person,” says actor Mandlekar.

Some of the other biopics that the Marathi film industry is working on include personalities like Dr Prakash Baba Amte, Savitribai Phule, Lokmanya Tilak and Tatya Tope. But what takes the cake is that there will be not one, but three films on Savitribai Phule. In the lead is the one with actress Tejaswini Pandit who proved her mettle in the biopic Mee Sindhutai Sapkal.

“We are making the film in both Marathi and English because we are working on an international release too,” says director SK Sha Latta.

In the second one, it is actress Tejaswani Lonari who will do the role of Savitribai in her brother Shivam Lonari’s home production. Meanwhile, Vijay Rahane has started work on his film with actress Smita Shewale. “I don’t want to talk about my project because there are suddenly just too many films on the same person,” he says.

Biopics Or Eulogies?

Most of Indian biopics fall short of showing the warts when it comes to dealing with well-known personalities. The fear of backlash is always the biggest stumbling block in being true to a story. “When you are making a film about Sardar Vallabbhai Patel, Mahatma Gandhi, Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar or any of such icons, you have to tread carefully because of the kind of moral policing we have in our country.

When Ketan Mehta made a film on Mangal Pandey, it earned the ire of a few vested groups which tried to stop its screening. Therefore, the purpose of making a biopic then boils down to showcasing the good side of a person who has achieved something awesome in his or her life,” points out producer Ram Mirchandani.

Hollywood has done it differently though. Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull on the life and career of boxer Jake LaMotta not only focused on the rage and violence that made him virtually unstoppable in the ring but also showed in detail how Jake used to beat his wife and his brother Joey, finally going into a self-destructive spiral of paranoia and rage. Or, for that matter, Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor that narrated the dramatic history of Pu Yi, the last of the emperors of China, from his lofty birth and brief reign in the Forbidden City through his abdication, his decline, dissolute lifestyle and finally his obscure existence as just another peasant worker in the People’s Republic.

An Aside

It looks like a case of one biopic axing another. Arindam Dey, who was planning to make a film on legendary singer Geeta Dutt in Bengali and Hindi, may be forced to abandon his project because Bhavna Talwar has been given the music rights for her film on Guru Dutt.

Is the biopic market becoming crowded?