BOLLYWOOD ZOOMS ITS LENS ON POLITICIANS

With films on Bal Thackeray, Dr Manmohan Singh, Arvind Kejriwal, Sanjay Gandhi, political biopics are back in vogue

When it comes to making a movie on the life of a politician, filmmakers are known to get cold feet. However, with An Insignificant Man- a documentary feature film on AAP leader and Delhi’s CM, Arvind Kejriwal, making its way to the theatres recently, and movies on the lives of Bal Thackeray and former PM Manmohan Singh under production, Bollywood is warming up to the idea. While the Thackeray biography has Nawazuddin Siddiqui playing the late Shiv Sena supremo, actor Anupam Kher essays the role of Dr Manmohan Singh.

Anand Gandhi, who produced the Kejriwal biopic says it is high time more political biopics got made. “We should welcome such films. It is exciting that we are finally at a point where we can talk about politics openly,” he says, adding that such films should also be open to a keen critique . On why political biopics has been a largely untouched genre, filmmaker Hansal Mehta says that the fear of being targeted makes it difficult to take up such projects.

“In our country, people are afraid even to take a political stand. If you have a stand which is different from the majority stand, you immediately get targeted. So because of the fear of being harassed, fear of backlash, people feel it is better not to dabble in political films and make something nonpolitical,” says Mehta, who is writing The Accidental Prime Minister, based on Dr Manmohan Singh’s life. Mehta is also directing a film based on the life of Indira Gandhi’s late son, Sanjay Gandhi.

Echoing Mehta, Gandhi says that the co-directors of An Insignificant Man, Khushboo Ranka and Vinay Shukla, had to overcome several objections by the censor board to release the film on Kejriwal’s life. He adds, however, that the duo showed the way to others, who should now be encouraged to make more such films. “We have lived through a long period of political censorship. All that they (Khushboo Ranka and Vinay Shukla) went through to ensure their film’s release is very inspiring,” Gandhi asserts. Experts call this wave of political biopics a legitimate trend. One that others will follow, also for want of newer subjects to make films on. “It is a trend. If one person announces a film on the life of a political leader, it triggers the imagination of a hundred others, and then two and three of them end up doing the same. It requires one person to take the plunge. And then others follow,” says trade analyst Komal Nahta.

For the actors, however, playing a politician on screen is the same as playing any other character. “For me, it’s just another character, I’m playing. Nothing special about playing a politician in a film,” says actor Anupam Kher.

In our country, people are afraid even to take a political stand. Because of the fear of backlash, people feel it’s better to not dabble in political films. HANSAL MEHTA DIRECTOR For me, it’s just another character, I’m playing. Nothing special about playing a politician in a film. It’s the same as playing Milkha, Dhoni or JFK. ANUPAM KHER, ACTOR

Actor Anupam Kher (inset) is essaying the role of former PM Dr Manmohan Singh

Shiv Sena’s chief Late Bal Thackeray is being played on screen by Nawazuddin Siddiqui

A film on the life of late Sanjay Gandhi is being directed by filmmaker Hansal Mehta

A docufilm on the life of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal released in November