LIKE flies hovering over a mithai in a sweetshop, Bollywood filmmakers keep gravitating to an old trend that never gets old: biopics. At least five such movies have hit the theatres this year, with the most awaited one, Emergency, yet to find a release date. This sub-genre has thrived for so long that even the reported pieces on it sound stale. Commenting on the trend in 2015 and 2024, The Quint and Deccan Chronicle published identical headlines ("It's Raining Biopics in Bollywood"). With over 40 of them releasing in the last decade-many finding novel ways to be mediocre, swinging from braindead to propagandist-this formula continues to flourish.
This surge in interest seems remarkable, as biopics didn't interest Bollywood filmmakers for decades. They had remained so indifferent to real stories that it took a foreign director-and production house-to make a movie on a revered Indian, Gandhi (1982). It makes sense. For an industry fixated on sweeping spectacles-soaked in songs, escapism, and melodrama-Bollywood revels in not depicting, but contradicting, realism.
So art-house filmmakers sought to harness the biopics' potential. Shyam Benegal made Bhumika (1977), exploring the life of Marathi actor Hansa Wadkar, and later, Zubeidaa (2001). Ketan Mehta's Sardar (1993) won two National Awards. And when a commercial director, Shekhar Kapur, helmed Bandit Queen (1994), he chose stark realism-theatre actors, no songs, shocking violence-positioning it as a 'serious movie'. Some filmmakers gave a new spin to the format by making mainstream, yet 'reflexive', dramas, such as Guru Dutt (Kaagaz Ke Phool) and Raj Kapoor (Mera Naam Joker).
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