Behind The Biopic Boom: The Reel Truth Of Real Stories

News18

4 hours ago

From political giants and war heroes to scam artists and godmen, everyone's life now seems destined for the big screen. What changed? The answer is part business, part belief, and part battlefield.
The Business of 'Real'
For filmmakers and studios, the biopic offers something most original scripts can't: built-in recognition. You don't have to explain who M.S. Dhoni is. Or Manjhi, the man who carved a road through a mountain.
Their names, already soaked in emotion or awe, do half the marketing. When a story is tied to a real figure especially one adored, martyred, or controversial, audience curiosity is immediate, and word-of-mouth does the rest.
This makes biopics surprisingly risk-proof. 'It's a win-win," says a Mumbai-based producer who has worked on two such films. 'You get organic buzz, political relevance, and media coverage without spending crores on promotional gimmicks."
Even average films, as long as they ride a 'real story' wave often find decent returns, especially when timed around elections, anniversaries, or trending issues.
Streaming platforms, too, are feeding the fire. Docu-dramas and limited series like Scoop, Rocket Boys, and Trial By Fire tap into the same thirst: audiences crave context for headlines they've only half-understood, and real-life pain offers deeper emotional hooks than any fictional plot twist can.
A Nation, Projected
In a country as diverse and contested as India, every story told onscreen isn't just entertainment, it's a statement. And in the age of hyper-visibility and political polarization, the biopic has become a new kind of propaganda, draped in cinematic respectability.
Consider the sudden surge of films centred around nationalist figures, soldiers, and spiritual leaders. They arrive like clockwork in the run-up to elections. The Narendra Modi biopic, for instance, was released just before the 2019 general elections.
The Accidental Prime Minister, Thackeray, Yatra each one timed to sway, nudge, remind. That's not coincidence. That's curation.
A biopic tells you whom to remember and more crucially, how. It edits history, omits controversy, polishes legacy. A rebel becomes a visionary. A complicated figure is flattened into a slogan. And if you're paying close attention, you'll notice who keeps getting left out.
The Politics of Absence
For every Shershaah or 83, there are a dozen lives we never see onscreen. These absences aren't accidental, they reflect deeper hierarchies of power and narrative permission. Making a biopic often requires some level of access, approval, or cooperation from the family or state.
And no surprise, those who challenge dominant power structures rarely get invited to tell their version of events. Even when stories from the margins are made, they often arrive with caveats softened, symbolic, or tucked into streaming platforms without theatrical fanfare.
So while the genre looks inclusive, it's often playing safe. Or worse, playing favorites.
The Messy Truth Behind the 'True Story"
And then, of course, there's the biggest illusion of all that what we're watching is the truth. Most biopics are anything but. To dramatize a life is, by definition, to edit it. Timelines are restructured. Facts are rearranged. Dull years are deleted. Events are reimagined with flair and fog.
Sometimes, that's artistic license. But often, it's strategic storytelling.
Biopics have become a delicate dance of PR, public memory, and performance. Legal teams are on alert. Families demand scripts be shown in advance. In powerful circles, a favourable film can be a career booster or a legacy reset. And when lawsuits do arise, the excuse is ready: 'This is fiction, inspired by real events."
This genre now thrives in that murky space, not quite documentary, not quite imagination. The result? Audiences walk away believing they know what happened. But what they often get is a narrative scrubbed of its grime, controversies reframed, and inconvenient truths either diluted or deleted.
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It is Omnipresent
The biopic boom isn't confined to Bollywood alone, it's a pan-India phenomenon sweeping across languages and regional cinemas with equal intensity. In Tamil, Thalaivii told the dramatic arc of Jayalalithaa's life, navigating her journey from actress to formidable politician, though critics pointed out its sanitised portrayal of realpolitik.
Malayalam cinema delivered Celluloid, a poignant tribute to J.C. Daniel, the father of Malayalam cinema, while also highlighting caste-based discrimination, a rare case where the form dared to be critical.
' Ennu Ninte Moideen' also from Malayalam, stood out for its tender yet tragic retelling of the real-life love story between Moideen and Kanchanamala, set in 1960s Kerala. While technically more of a romantic drama than a traditional biopic, it drew heavily from letters, diaries, and real-world accounts, earning both critical and box office success.
Thus, proving that real-life romance, too, has cinematic muscle. In Telugu, 'Mahanati ' received widespread acclaim for its lush, tragic portrayal of yesteryear star Savitri, balancing reverence with vulnerability and capturing the harsh realities of a woman's stardom in a patriarchal industry.
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Marathi cinema has also dabbled richly in the genre, from 'Lokmanya: Ek Yugpurush' on freedom fighter Bal Gangadhar Tilak to 'Anandi Gopal ', based on India's first female doctor, both films used history to provoke reflection on contemporary values.
Even Kannada cinema's 'Kantara' while not a biopic borrowed heavily from real rituals and folklore, blurring lines between lived experience and cultural re-enactment.
These regional biopics carry their own flavours and stakes, often tied to linguistic pride, local legends, and forgotten icons proving that the hunger for 'real" stories is neither uniform nor surface-level. But across languages, the same questions persist: Who gets to be remembered? And who gets rewritten?
Where Do We Go From Here?
And yet, despite the manipulation and fatigue, we keep watching. Because somewhere deep down, we still want to believe. That stories matter. That memory matters. That cinema, at its best, can still reflect more than just entertainment.