Biopics And Bollywood

In this weekend’s blog, it is Bollywood again. Friends, you must have noticed recently it has become a fashion to make biopic films. Some of the films have already been released over the years, and some are in pipelines. But do these biopic films show the true events as they have happened?  Or they fictionalize for creating dramatic effects. Given below are a few instances when Bollywood messed up important facts in the biopic and made fool of us:

1 Neerja

A story of courageous Neerja Bhanot, who sacrificed her life while protecting the lives of 355 passengers on the Pan Am flight 73 in 1986. The flight was hijacked by a terrorist organization. Although the film was based on Neerja and her sacrifice, the role of fellow crew members was not shown properly. Few of the crew members after seeing the film commented that saving of passengers of that flight was a team effort, but because Neerja died in this operation she got untainted importance. The fact is that in reality, all the crew members faced this ordeal.

2 Azhar

This biopic was on the life story of a former Indian cricket captain Mohd. Azharuddin. This film also played with the emotions of the audience. The film depicts the Indian captain as the prey of the event that eventually occurred in his life. The film tries to imprint on the public that the court itself cleared all charges that were on him. But the real and archived newspaper cutting and articles are enough to prove that the film messed up upon the important facts.

3 MS Dhoni: The Untold Story

The film helps to believe that the rise of MS Dhoni as a cricketer, batsman, and even a captain was because of his relationship with Priyanka Jha. The film shows that she met him on a flight while a one-day series with Pakistan was going on. After she met him he scored a century and then he fixed his place in the Indian team. But the reports and the photo clippings show that Dhoni was dating Priyanka from 2002 while India A  squad was playing with Zimbabwe and Kenya.

4 Uri: The Surgical Strike

The GARUD that was introduced by the DRDO intern with a specification range of 12 KM, 4 hours battery, 16 MP camera, digital zoom of 7.2x, and infrared camera with GPS and night vision, and the bird could also hover. This is just a mislead in the film because the Uri Surgical Strike took place in 2016 and Garud type bird was introduced in 2017 by a company called Arial Analytics based out of Canada. The name of the bird is ROBIRD. In the film, it was shown that it can fly for up to 4 hours but in reality, it can fly for 10-15 minutes. However, the facts shown in the film cannot be challenged as the Indian Army cannot disclose the facts because of security reasons.

5 Mary Kom

Mary Kom herself in an interview has been dramatized to a great extent. In the film, it is shown that Mary Kom used to do street boxing for money, but in reality, she had fought once and she had never fought for money. In the film, it is shown that her father was vehemently opposed to boxing, but in reality, her father supported her to an extent. She was never in the boxing ring when her son was being operated but according to the film, she was playing in the finals of the world championship and she won the same, and her son was saved. This scene is entirely fictional.

6 Dangal

In the film, it is shown that after the incident where Geeta and Babita hit the boys who were teasing them, their journey of wrestling started. But, in reality, Mahavir Phogat got inspiration from Karnan Malleswari, the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal in weightlifting in 2000. Geeta’s coach PR Sodhi has been depicted as a negative character in the film. But, in reality, the coach appreciated the efforts of Mahavir Phogat for his daughters. He also invited him to visit the camp and meet his daughters. In the film, the last match displays a cliffhanger, where Geeta scores a 5-pointer to win the match. But in reality, the match was won by 1-0, and 7-0 in the first and second round respectively. In the film, it is also shown that Mahavir Phogat was locked by coach, but in reality, he was sitting in the stands and watching Geeta win the Gold medal.

7 The Dirty Picture

As per the facts, South Indian Actress Silk Smitha committed suicide by hanging herself on the ceiling. Contrary to this, the movie showed that she overdosed herself with sleeping pills and died. After the release of the film, this portrayal of Silk Smitha’s death was discussed widely, because it was the fact she died due to hanging.

There are so many other films that claimed to be biopic but never show the real happenings, and one of them is Airlift. Yes, evacuation from Kuwait did happen, but not like in the film where it was shown that the leading man arranged everything for evacuees. In fact, there were two Indians who helped in evacuating many. About 10,000 Indian stayed back in Kuwait, feeling safe with Iraqis who were friendly to India, and never consciously hurt an Indian. What is shown in the film can be said as fictional?

So when next time you go to watch a biopic film, please remember that everything that is shown in the film may not be true, and a few incidences are definitely glorified for dramatic and emotional effects.

Waiting for your views on this blog.

Anil Malik

Mumbai, India

1^st July 2022