In a bid to add drama to biopics, Bollywood filmmakers have been ruffling feathers and facing legal wrangles
Salman Khan, Sultan, Dangal cast, Phogats, Film, Shah Rukh Khan and Mahira Khan, Raees
Salman Khan in Sultan
Biopics are the flavour of the season in Bollywood. Real-life sagas are being narrated- well almost - as the plot usually has a dollop of fiction too. Sarabjeet Singh's sister, Dalbir Kaur, welcomed the cast of Omung Kumar's Sarbjit (2016) - Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Randeep Hooda and Richa Chadha - into her home. Ditto with the Bhanots, Akhil and Aneesh, who rediscovered the spirit of their braveheart sister, slain PanAm airhostess Neerja Bhanot, when Sonam Kapoor played her part in Ram Madhvani's Neerja (2016).
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But these are instances of bonafide biopics.
Unfulfilled promises
What about a film like the Salman Khan-starrer Sultan (2016)? Right after the film released in July, Mohammad Sabir Ansari alias Sabir Baba, a resident of Muzaffarpur, filed a petition in the chief judicial magistrate's court on grounds of cheating. He claimed Salman had promised to give him R20 crore as royalty for making a film based on his life.
The Dangal cast with the Phogats on whose life the film is based
According to Ansari's lawyer Sudhir Ojha, the case is currently pending. "Salman had met him in 2010. The meeting went well and Salman was convinced he wants to make a movie on his life. He has not kept his part of the promise. The man deserves his royalty and he must be given. We will see this till the end," says Ojha.
Not balanced
On a similar note, Raees, based on the life of Ahmedabad gangster Abdul Latif Shaikh hasn't gone down well with his kin. The major bone of contention was that the makers had approached the family for information on him, but his portrayal is lopsided and doesn't mention his philanthropic work. Shaikh's son Mushtaq has filed a R100-crore defamation case that is pending in the Gujarat High Court. Besides, his bootlegging activities and the claims of him running a brothel, the local community has also taken objection to the way women of Daryapuri have been portrayed. The production house, in a statement, clarified, "It is a pure work of fiction and is not based on any person; living or dead. It is an imagined crime thriller set against the backdrop of Gujarat."
Mushtaq retorted to this saying, "I've watched the film's trailer, and what they (makers) say doesn't matter. It is clearly based on my father's life."
Shah Rukh Khan and Mahira Khan in Raees
After watching Neeraj Pandey's biopic M S Dhoni : The Untold Story made on his life, Captain Cool was moved to tears. Soon after the screening, Dhoni told the press, "Sushant Singh Rajput has completely imitated me. From the way I talk, to the way I walk, he has done an exceptional job. When we talk about cricket specifically, he practiced the game for months, for almost three hours every day. He could play cricket as well as me."
The recent Aamir Khan-starrer Dangal is based on the life of wrestler Mahavir Singh Phogat. According to Aamir the film focusses on liberation of young girls than on the sport itself. Says Geeta Phogat told us, "I'm happy with the way the film has turned out. It was emotional for us to see our lives on screen. Aamir sir and the girls (Fatima Sana Sheikh and Sanya Malhotra) have portrayed our story beautifully. It seemed like I was watching myself." Babita, too, echoed her sister's sentiments. "It was an emotional moment, not just for me and Geeta, but for the entire family. Imagine you are sitting in a theatre and watching a movie about your life. These are things dreams are made of. The final sequence was shot really well. The national anthem in the end gave us goosebumps."
Of course, not everyone is happy even with Dangal. The fictionalised life account of the Phogats ended up showing PR Sondhi in a bad light. The wrestling coach had trained Geeta for the Commonwealth Games. Though, he is yet to touch base with Aamir, he says, "Distortion of facts has hurt my reputation. I should've been told how they intended to portray this character."
This year, there's another biopic in order. Arunachalam Muruganantham, better known as Menstrual Man, who is counted amongst India's top thinking minds. Akshay Kumar is all set to play him in R Balki's Padman. In 1998, Muruganantham had sparked off a revolution when he developed, after much derision and social censure, a low-cost sanitary napkin manufacturing machine. The machine is installed in 23 states.
Though he isn't ashamed to admit that he wanted to give the rights of his story to someone in Hollywood, so the film reaches a wider audience, he didn't have the heart to turn down Twinkle Khanna (who turns producer with this movie). Says Muruganantham, "I am proud that for the first time in world cinema history, a mainstream male star will talk about menstruation and sanitary napkins in a movie. The theme is universal. A full fledged feature film will be a game changer."
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