Sports biopics: For the love of sports or money?

Trade analysts, filmmakers talk about how sportsmen biopics are a sure-fire ticket to box office success

KARACHI: Biopics on sports stars are among the flavours of the season in Bollywood. With the box-office success of Mary Kom, more such movies are in the pipeline and experts admit such films are inspirational and find an easy connection with viewers.

But they caution that a herd mentality won’t guarantee success. Even in Pakistan, Humayun’s Saeed’s film Mein Hoon Shahid Afridi didn’t do wonders at the box office as expected of a film sporting the name of the legendary cricketer.

“No hidden secret behind it. They are making them because such movies are working on the box office,” PVR Pictures COO Deepak Sharma told IANS.”Biopics are inspirational. People from all walks of life feel associated with their personality. Families also don’t mind taking their kids to such movies as they know they will be clean movies,” he added. Trade analyst Komal Nahta labels this herd mentality, but admits that well-narrated stories usually win the appreciation of viewers.”There’s this herd mentality in the industry. Everybody tends to run in the direction of successful movies,” Nahta told IANS.

Mein Hoon Shahid Afridi didn’t do wonders on the box office as expected of a film sporting the name of the legendary cricketer.

As far as the business of Mein Hoon Shahid Afridi is concerned, the film was considered a hit in the cinemas but did not deliver as positively as a film inspired by Afridi is expected to gross. “To be very frank, Shahid Afridi was the most feasible name as far as mass appeal is concerned and his tag line delivered for us,” Vasay Chaudhry, the screenwriter of the film told The Express Tribune. “ But the major difference was that it was not actually a biopic and was the first Pakistani film to be based on a living legend.”



The latest biopic to hit the right chord with the audience was Mary Kom about five-time world boxing champ M.C. Mary Kom. Set designer Omung Kumar’s decision to turn director with Mary Kom was worth a risk as it marked a successful beginning for him and also set the producers’ cash registers ringing.Last year, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, which saw Farhan Akhtar reliving the life of former Olympian Milkha Singh — widely known as the Flying Sikh — not only took home a string of awards but also did a whopping business of over INR 1 Billion.

The film’s director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra said, “It’s a great sign that the audience’s taste is changing and evolving. It’s the country which is changing and that is reflecting in our movies today.”

However, many feel that 2007 release Chak De! India, loosely based on hockey coach Mir Ranjan Negi, was the game changer and started this chain reaction of sports films.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 12^th, 2014.

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