THE TREND OF BIOPICS IN BOLLYWOOD

Is B In Bollywood Really For Biopic?

A trend that started with Raja Harishchandra in the early 1913, biopics have had a long journey of more than 100 years and today many of them are among renowned ‘A’ list movies. Biopics like Aligarh to Zubeidaa have not only revolutionized over the years but have constantly managed to inspire people around the globe.

Earlier Bollywood used to make a hit biopic every couple of years like Jodha Akbar but it had a rush of biopics in the year 2001 with various movies releasing that are still considered as one of the best movies, like Laagan. The trend picked its peak with the phenomenal success of Bhaag Milkha Bhaag and Mary Kom, has not looked back ever since. Every year, Bollywood has a number of biopics lined up for release and surprisingly the audience for such movies have increased in number exponentially also the success of recent films like Super 30, Dangal, Neerja have further strengthened the trend and urged the industry to keep on producing more such films.

Bollywood has a herd mentality. Except for a few creative & talented people, most just try to replicate movies/genre that have worked in the past. Therefore, Biopics can be considered as the jugaad of Bollywood because while writing a fictional topic one has to use their imagination; where as writing biopics can be fairly easy. Researching too is not very difficult considering that most of the information is publicly available. Biopics garner a lot of free publicity for the movie before its release like in the case of The Accidental Prime Minister, where Congress party workers protested across the state & the movie stayed in the news providing it easy promotion.

Biopics are highly influential and helps change lives of people. Sanju gave Sanjay Dutt a chance to white wash his image. Not only that it also gave him a chance to regain his lost fame, earn lots of money and most importantly gain respect of everyone.

Biopics act as medium to remind people of the blunders and make them nostalgic about their political leaders for example: thackeray, accidental prime minister etc. Some also do the good work of telling more people about the great contributions of ordinary people to society. For example- Super 30, Manjhi – The Mountain Man, etc.

There have been a plethora of biopics on sports personalities, politicians, freedom fighters and underworld dons and celebrities which have become a huge source of inspiration for filmmakers. In India, sports biopics are big. Biopic gives filmmakers the fresh themes and they are making more films than ever. The 2007 film 'Chak De India,' was the first sports biopics inspired by the life of an Indian women's hockey team coach Mir Ranjan Negi, who led a team of girls to new heights. Then there was 2010 film ‘Paan Singh Tomar’ starring Irfan Khan. These films with strong emotional content gave audience the fresh lease of life.

Besides sports biopics, Bollywood’ love affair and gangster films have always been loved by the audience. Ram Gopal Varma’s 2002 film Company was loosely based on the relationship between mob bosses Dawood Ibrahim and Chota Rajan. The 2007 film Black Friday directed by Anurag Kashyap based on S Hussain Zaidi’s book of the same name, is considered the most authentic film on Mumbai’s gangsters.

At first Indians were unable to grasp the concept of Biopic and even when they did these movies were unable to compete with Hollywood biographies like life is beautiful but the industry kept on making them anyway beliving “Jub Samay Aaiga, toh Subse Bada aur Sub Se Lamba Chalaang, Hum He Marange.”

Well it’s Biopic time in Bollywood now!