Star biographies hit a roadblock

Excerpts from Yasser Usman’s biography of Sanjay Dutt have been slammed by the actor, who says he never authorised the write-up. Sanjay claims that an authorised biography is on its way.

There’s also the ‘authorised’ biopic being directed by his friend Raj Kumar Hirani, but it’s already being perceived as glossing over many well-known facts of Dutt’s life, to make the picture more palatable.

Meanwhile, there have been a couple of ‘authorised’ biographies and autobiographies, namely ones of Rishi Kapoor and Karan Johar, which have worked well, given the constraints. But that’s been all.

It would seem like Bollywood actors are unwilling to tell the truth about their lives. Amitabh Bachchan once told this writer, “It would hurt too many people. And unless one is willing to tell the entire truth, there’s no point to the biography.”

Another senior actor, known for his youthful zest and vivacity, says he has put his biography on hold. “How can I write about the women I’ve been with? My wife will walk out. And those women have a life of their own. How can I barge in with my honest confessions to disrupt their lives?”

A recent example of biographies gone wretchedly wrong includes Nawazudin Siddiqui’s memoir, which had to be hastily withdrawn from bookshops, when the ladies he was involved with objected.

We now hear that several biographies that were in the planning stages have been aborted for the fear of unreasonable backlash. These include some on Madhuri Dixit-Nene, Dharmendra, Kishore Kumar and Mohammed Rafi.