Headline Grabbers

Dressing Room is just one of several Hindi films that take off on real life events. Mehul Kumar8217;s Jaago, starring Raveena Tandon and Manoj Bajpai, is based on 20028217;s rape in a Mumbai local. Madhur Bhandarkar will capture a slice of Page 3. Tanuja Chandra8217;s Hope and a Little Sugar, starring Urmila Matondkar, finds a backdrop in 9/11, as does Escape From Taliban director Ujjal Chatterjee8217;s The Search with Manisha Koirala. Ramgopal Varma8217;s finished production Ab Tak Chhappan is among four films inspired by encounter cop Daya Nayak. While the Sanjay Suri, Namrata Shirodkar-starrer Insaaf is based on the incident where an IAS officer8217;s wife was raped in Bihar.

In fact, Bajpai reprises his role as cop in Kumar8217;s next, titled Azaadi. 8220;It will show corruption, including what has happened with the Telgi scam,8221; says Kumar.

Real life is stranger than fiction and infinitely more gripping. Documentary maker Kabir Khan will start his first feature Kabul Express, based on his experiences in Afghanistan. It8217;s the light-hearted story of two journalists, one of whom gets kidnapped by the Taliban. 8220;Some of it is what I8217;ve witnessed, some reported. I8217;ve included this prison break in Mazar-e-Sharif I read about, but relocated it in Kabul,8221; says Khan.

It is among the many films that have picked an event to spin a screenplay. Like Insaaf, where Suri plays IAS officer Vishwanath Prasad whose wife Kunti gets raped by a politician8217;s son. Suri was part of 20038217;s touching Dhoop on the frustrated parents of a Kargil martyr. Insaaf is grounded in the Bihar real-life case that rocked headlines, but is fictionalised. 8220;It8217;s tricky playing a real-life character. You can meet the person and grasp the character,8221; says Suri, 8220;But if the role is well-written, that8217;s good enough for me.8221;

That may not hold for Nana Patekar, who plays Nayak in Ab Tak Chhappan. The actor refuses to discuss the role or his association with the notorious encounter cop before the film8217;s release. But Nayak himself is all praise for Ab Tak, which he says is closest to the contentious reality.

Even Bhandarkar says the celebrity splash is only his take-off point. 8220;I got intriguing ideas from it. Actors, models, socialites, politicians and policemen8212;all under one roof. I thought the best point of view would be from a new journalist on the Page 3 beat played by Konkana Sen-Sharma,8221; he says, intending to begin it by January-end. In fact, the character Appa Kadam Nayak, played by Suniel Shetty in Bhandarkar8217;s just completed Aan, is loosely based on Daya Nayak again.

Govind Nihalani is one film-maker from the school of life. In his office, the posters are social statements, but Nihalani says the films weren8217;t inspired by any one incident. 8220;When a script is based on reality, it has the extra edge. Aakrosh did have an incident based on communal tension in Bhiwandi. Ardh Satya was based on a short story, but Vijay Tendulkar added a lot of incidents.8221;

In fact, Nihalani is now wrapping up shooting for Dev, starring Om Puri and Amitabh Bachchan, that is Ardh Satya Part II. 8220;It has drawn a lot from the pressures, the corruption that a police officer faces,8221; he smiles mysteriously.

Even if film-makers constantly turn to events and biographies, chances of blockbusters are few. In recent memory, Kargil: LOC is plodding along, Kagaar and Escape From Taliban sunk and despite reviews, The Legend Of Bhagat Singh and Dhoop flopped. 8220;Audiences want to see rainbows, not a mirror held to themselves,8221; says Manjrekar, who was inspired by AIDS reports for Nidaan.

But that hasn8217;t stopped those, as Sudhir Mishra puts it, 8220;inspired by life8221;. His Hazaaron Khwaishien Aisi is set in the Emergency and has been selected for the Berlin Film Festival. 8220;If someone wanted a portrait of a woman in the 1970s, where would they go?8221; says Mishra. 8220;Everything can8217;t be based on entertainment. The audience can8217;t lie down like a feudal nobleman and say, 8216;Titillate me.8217;8221;

Maybe Mani Shankar8217;s Vande Mataram will cross that. An ambitious project, it has the Bangladesh War as a backdrop and stars Sanjay Dutt, Ajay Devgan, Suniel Shetty and Bipasha Basu. Even if a top-heavy LOC: Kargil didn8217;t quite measure, Vande Mataram may have the 8216;right8217; reality to become a draw.