While there has not been a dearth of imaginative and fresh scripts in Bollywood, the industry seems to be looking to a whole new cache of inspiring stories for keeping its audiences interested in 2016. And no, it is not the ones borrowed generously from its neighbours in the south or its counterparts in the west, but from the interesting lives of those who’ve captured the public imagination — both popular and notorious. With a huge number of biopics lined up for release in 2016, including big projects such as Azhar, MS Dhoni: The Untold Story, Neerja, Dangal (based on wrestler Mahavir Phogat) and more, it is safe to say that real stories with a dash of Bollywood magic seem to be the next big success formula in the industry.
The reason for Bollywood’s fascination for biopics might be the past success of films such as the earlier Dirty Picture to the more recent Mary Kom, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, Paan Singh Tomar or the critical appreciation for Main Aur Charles. But while biopics are coming up as a preferred alternative to fictional storylines, making one is that much more difficult, say experts and industry insiders, who give us the low-down on what are the challenges specific to making a biopic.
The real challenge of making a biopic, contends director Anthony D’Souza, who is making the upcoming film on the life of Mohammad Azharuddin titled Azhar, is the fact that the characters in the movie are very much real and alive. “When a story is based on a real-life person and especially when the person is someone who is alive, one can’t deviate too much from the facts. So naturally it is that much more challenging because you can’t take creative liberties and have to work with limited resources,” says Anthony. He further adds, “However, the fact that it is challenging is what makes it all the more interesting to pursue.”
But direction isn’t the only challenge when it comes to making a biopic, as popular writer Piyush Mishra who wrote The Legend of Bhagat Singh believes that writers too have to tread a very fine line when scripting a real life story. Says Piyush, “From the context of writing a biopic on popular or historical characters, the most important thing to keep in mind is that one should have a good command of the background or history of the character.”
However, he contends that biopics too allow ample room for creativity, albeit with some restraint. “For example, there is a scene in Bhagat Singh in which Bhagat meets Sukhdev for the first time in college, where it is shown that he is ragging Sukhdev. It is an interesting way to portray the start of a relationship that is central to the story. But how can we know what ragging was like in colleges back in 1921 There is nothing wrong with adding dramatic elements as the underlying aim is to entertain, but as long as it is done with restraint it is fine.”
Above everything else comes the research that one has to put in to portray a real character, contends ad guru and thespian Alyque Padamsee. Alyque, who is renowned for his portrayal of Mohammad Ali Jinnah in Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi, says, “When I played Jinnah, I fortunately had six months to research my character, but these days Bollywood has become such a fast-paced industry that unlike in theatre, actors don’t get enough time to prepare or do any research.”
Anthony, who is directing Emraan Hashmi in Azhar, explains that it is not only the character and the personality of the person, but even the smallest of things that need to be taken into account. “You have to look at the lifestyle of the person, their style, mannerisms, the clothes they wear can all lend to the character in making it real,” he explains.
Telling us about his research for the character of Jinnah, Alyque says, “I had to look at not only the physical part of the character but also the mental and emotional shades of it. The trick is in the tiny details. You see, my research wasn’t done with books but it was with people and characters who had seen Jinnah in real life. I went around and spoke to so many people who had met Jinnah in person. And they gave me such wonderful stories about the man. That’s the essence of it. An actor’s research cannot be done with tomes of biographical works — but a simple anecdote can tell you so much more about a man than books can.”
Although many consider biopics to be a new terrain that is difficult to navigate, filmmaker Amole Gupte, who is planning a biopic on the life of badminton star Saina Nehwal, believes that the underlying principles are the same. Amole says, “I view biopics as inherently the same as any other story. For example, I dealt with Taare Zameen Par as the biopic of a dyslexic child. You have a central character and the story is woven around him/her. So that way, every film is a biopic.” Giving us his personal take on the recent interest in biopics, Amole says, “It does offer a bigger scope but it is not a success formula as the success of the project mostly resides in how it is dealt with.”
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