MUMBAI: Guess biopics are the flavour of Bollywood this season. If we look back then it was Shekhar Kapoor who actually started the trend of biopics in Bollywood with ‘Bandit Queen’, which was based on the life of Phoolan Devi, an Indain dacoit starring Seema Biswas.
Post this some of the memorable biopics made were Yash Raj Films’ ‘Chak De India’, a film based on the life of an Indian hockey player Mir Ranjan Negi, starring Shah Rukh Khan, UTV’s ‘Paan Singh Tomar’, based on the life of an Indian soldier with the same name who was an athlete and later turned into a dacoit, starring Irrfan Khan, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s ‘Bhaag Milkha Bhaag’, a biographical sports drama film based on the life of ‘The Flying Sikh’ Milkha Singh, an Indian athlete who was a national champion runner and an Olympian, starring Farhan Akhtar and Sonam Kapoor.
But the biopic that’s currently in news is director Hansal Mehta’s ‘Shahid’ which is based on the life and times of slain Mumbai activist-lawyer Shahid Azmi. Shahid was killed at a tender age of thirty two and his last seven years were dedicated to under trial and innocent people caught under different laws.
As per the records, he successfully pleaded for seventeen acquittals in seven years, indeed a high rate for the otherwise slow judiciary system. It’s Rajkumar Yadav’s flawless acting that has made Shahid Azmi a memorable character of the celluloid.
Also on floor is a biopic on Mangte Chungneijang Mary Kom, an Indian boxer from Manipur who is a five time Work Boxing Champion and the only Indian woman boxer to have qualified for the 2012 Summer Olympics.
The film tentatively titled ‘Mary Kom’ stars Priyanka Chopra as Mary Kom. The film is being directed by Omung Kumar and produced by Sanjay Leela Bhansali.
