Ranbir Kapoor’s Dutt Biopic: Will It Change The Way Bollywood Treats Biopics?

Sanjay Dutt Biopic having Ranbir Kapoor as Baba is undoubtedly one of the most awaited movies of this year. But it falls in a genre which really has not been fully polished by our industry – biopics. The first major ingredient of making a biopic in Bollywood is unnecessary glorification.

One of the earliest biopics that’s still fresh in my mind is a Marathi film titled as Sant Tukaram. It was based on the life of Tukaram, a prominent Varkari saint and spiritual poet of the Bhakti movement in India.

Watched it as a child and it was so genuine that for few years I thought its lead actor Vishnupant Pagnis is the real Saint Tukaram.

Then came in Richard Attenborough, an English filmmaker, who made a film on the father of India – Mahatma Gandhi which also got him two Oscars for Best Film & Best Director. Touted as one of the most exhaustively thorough biopics; though this was no Bollywood it was an alarm for those who thought movie making is just a work of fiction.

Movies like Sardar, Bandit Queen, Netaji Shubhas Chandra Bose: The Forgotten Hero, Mangal Pandey: The Rising and The Legend Of Bhagat Singh started a never-ending trend in Bollywood. Little did we know it will all boil down to lionize the subject in future. Last year Hollywood gave us two amazing movies in I, Tonya and The Disaster Artist.