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Biopic poser: is it easy if the subject’s still alive?
B ollywood is riding the biopic wave. But several of these films are about people who are still alive — actor Sanjay Dutt, gangster-turned-politician Arun Gawli, as well as shuttlers Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu. It makes you wonder what the challenges are when the subject of the biopic is among us, giving viewers a clear point of reference and, perhaps, putting more pressure on the film-makers.
“The level of responsibility you have to staying close to the facts increases greatly when you’re making a film on a person who’s still alive,” says Arjun Rampal, who played Gawli in the biopic, Daddy. “[The facts and character traits are] something that one has to research, understand, and try to get close to.”
Arjun shares that it wasn’t easy to play Gawli. “He isn’t someone I could go and meet every day. He’s in jail and serving a term. I met him three to four times and tried to get to know him as a person,” the actor says. Such films also need to tackle legal issues. Arjun says that before the biopic even saw the light of day, many people had started raising questions that needed to be addressed.
Anurag Basu, who’s working on a biopic on music legend Kishore Kumar — with Ranbir Kapoor playing the singer — believes that it’s easier if the subject of the film is alive. Anurag points out, “I’m heavily dependent on interviews of people who were associated with Kishore Kumar. Nobody knows why he did something and in a certain way. Such inputs [had he been alive] would have added to the film.”
Film-maker R Balki, on his part, feels that when it’s a film, a little bit of liberty makes it all the more interesting. “I need to be respectful to the person about whom I’m making a film. But a little liberty is acceptable when it adds to the life of the person,” he says. Balki is making a biopic on entrepreneur Arunachalam Muruganantham, the inventor of the low-cost sanitary pad.