Biopics stay in vogue as Sanju eyes a strong start

Sanju

Biopics seem to be the new success formula for Bollywood with filmmakers eager to bring life stories of eminent personalities to the big screen and audiences consuming them with equal enthusiasm.

The latest in this race is director Rajkumar Hirani of the PK and Munnabhai MBBS fame. Hirani has taken on the task to relive the tale of Sanjay Dutt, an actor who has been a controversy’s child for a long time. Starring Ranbir Kapoor, Sanju will hit theatres on June 29 and the advance booking has started on a strong note.

Pre-sale for Sanju at the metros is better than Salman Khan’s Race 3 which is currently the biggest Bollywood opener of the year.

And this signals to a growing trend of biopics in Bollywood. Biographical or biopics dominated the box office collections in 2016, according to a 2017 KPMG report. Dangal became the highest grossing Bollywood movie of all time. MS Dhoni: The Untold Story and Rustom were among the top five in the domestic box office collection. Neerja also performed well by garnering around Rs 71.7 crore as net box office domestic revenue.

Sports-oriented biopics have found resonance with the audiences over the last few years. Dangal topped this list breaking all records and setting a new benchmark for Indian films both in domestic and international business. The movie based on the lives of the Phogat sisters, who had to Dangal their way to become world-class wrestlers, grossed over Rs 2,000 crore.

Other films like MS Dhoni: The Untold Story, Mary Kom, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, and Azhar collected Rs 189 crore, Rs 86 crore, Rs 163 crore, Rs 49.93 crore, respectively.

How is technology helping to churn out more biopics?

Technology is playing an increasingly important role in creating movies that showcase the entire journey of the film’s protagonist. This includes depicting the protagonist at different ages and integrating the film’s shot footage with actual news, sports or documentary footage seamlessly.

In MS Dhoni: The Untold Story, actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s younger, teenage version was created and the actor was inserted into archive broadcast footage of the key cricket matches of cricketer Dhoni’s career. To de-age the actor, a three-fold technique was employed to digitally adjust the actor’s facial and physical characteristics to give him the appearance of a teenager.

Bollywood’s tryst with biopics

It is not just biopics on sports personalities that have done well. Akshay Kumar opened up social dialogue in the society with his film Padman which amassed Rs 78.95 crore. Sonam Kapoor portrayed Neerja Bhanot who saved many lives in a flight which was hijacked by terrorists. Packed with powerful performances the film earned Rs 75.61 crore.

While biopics on Bollywood stars and sporting icons are finding their way into celluloid glory, even ordinary heroes are making it big on the silver screen. And Bollywood’s love for biopics is so much that more than 40 films were churned out in the past decade alone.

More biopics coming up

And Bollywood is so obsessed with biopics that there is a number of films in this genre that will be coming to theatres soon. The list includes Anupam Kher’s The Accidental Prime Minister, Kangana Ranaut’s Manikarnika, Akshay Kumar’s Gold.

Actor Boman Irani will play the role of Kailash Satyarthi, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Jhalki. In Super 30, which is scheduled to release next year in January, is based on the life of mathematician Anand Kumar, the founder of the initiative Super 30, who selects 30 talented candidates each year from economically backward sections of society and trains them for the IIT-JEE entrance exam.

Biopics on badminton players PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal and Pullela Gopichand will also go on the floors soon.