Real-life drama

Basking in the glowing reviews for Paan Singh Tomar,Tigmanshu Dhulia talks about the scope for biopics in India.

Going by the amazing response Paan Singh Tomar has got,I think theres a huge scope for biopics in India. However,filming a biopic is a subjective decision. One should be well-read and have a good sense of history. You cannot just watch Hollywood DVDs and create rip-offs.

While making a biopic,the first aspect you have to consider is whether the person on whom you are basing the film has led a colourful life. Next,its important to make the character endearing. People should love him/her. In a biopic,the plot is not important,the personality is. However,in most cases,makers give undue importance to the detailing of the era. The props,the clothes,the ambience the entire exercise is about getting these aspects right,instead of the character. Thats the main reason most biopics fail. The one that comes to my mind is Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose wherein the era was recreated to the T but the character got lost.

In case of Paan Singh,nobody knew him,so I was saved from any comparisons. His pictures are only being released now. Paan Singh was a great character who took pride in his regiment and his family. That essentially was my motivation. Yes,there was a delay in releasing the film but that was because both UTV producer and I wanted the film to make the rounds of various film festivals and garner good media. It was important that we send it unreleased. We wanted to release it in the later part of 2011 but it was jam-packed with four or five releases a week. This was a good time to hit the theatres. The response has been phenomenal in terms of the respect it has got. As far as the box-office is concerned,it has so far collected 8216;4-5 crore,which is great. The fact that the multiplex audience in cosmopolitan cities like Mumbai is watching a film set in a village is encouraging. I am planning to make another biopic,this time on Begum Sumru,who was also an interesting,colourful character.

Besides this,a lot of biopics have been lined up including one on Milkha Singh,Kishore Kumar and Guru Dutt. All these are famous personalities and people only know good things about them. Filmmakers also refrain from touching upon the negative areas of their lives. But there has to be a conflict,otherwise people will be deprived of good drama. Also a biopic needs to have a good ending like Paan Singh.. who was shot down by the cops.