B for Bollywood? Nah, it's B for Biopics. Bollywood seems to have grown an unexpected fondness for biopics over the last 4-5 years. All of this immense fondness started after the success of the Farhan Akhtar starrer, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, based on the life of the sprinter Milkha Singh and since then there has been no turning back for Bollywood.
The recent success of movies like Neerja and Dangal have not only cemented my belief that this trend of biopics is not going to stop but also it seems that Bollywood is running out of storylines because of which they are shifting to Biopics.
Why might producers invest quite a fortune(because a lot of biopics need quite a old setup)? The answer to this lies in the audience. Most of the biopics are inspiring. Then there are movies like Neerja and Dangal, which encash on something that the indian audiences are overflowing with.....Emotions. Where Neerja had no star power it had the best return on its Investment of 2016. Accumalating 760 million and made on a modest budget of 200 million Neerja's ROI was 260% but then came Dangal, which had star power of Aamir. Needless to say, it was the highest grosser of 2016 earning 3.86 billion and made on a budget of 1.15 billion and a ROI of 257%. M.S. Dhoni was no doubt a hit but it's return on investment was 157% so it can't technically be called a super success. Which pretty much tells why producers are shifting to biopics.
Producers make biopics on popular people to trace back their journey from where it began, as it gurantees footfalls and the producers who 'dare' to make on forgotten heroes are also pretty much in the safe zone because the curious audience wants to know "Ab Yeh Kaun Tha?" and this curiousity drives them to the theatres. The success of Neerja and Mary Kom are examples of such a scenario.
But, whatsoever, the biopics these days are inspiring. Not only they help producers mint money they also help a newcomer/ star to become or evolve as an actor. Sonam Kapoor, Farhan Akhtar, Abhishek Bachchan have evolved as an "actor" and not just pretty faces. Actually, it saved their sinking ship.
Biopics, need to be made in Bollywood but they should come once in a while otherwise they will become repetitive, but producers should also encourage new, fresh stories. Though, not all biopics are successful, exceptions of Azhar, Budhia Singh are examples of biopics gone wrong.
Let's just hope that fresh and original stories don't die out because of biopics. But here are 2 biopics that I wish are never forgotten because these movies defined exceptional acting and extraordinary direction. Both these movies deserved a lot more recognition than they got.
1.) The Bandit Queen. (BO: 14.29 crores= 125 crores in 2017)
2.) Paan Singh Tomar. (BO: 14.61 crores= 16.49 crores in 2017)
Hope Biopics are continued to be made and bring the rightful holders of global recognition into the limelight.
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