Mirabai Chanu, Ravi Dahiya, Neeraj Chopra: Are Olympic heroes Bollywood’s next stop for inspiration?

A well made sports films has all the makings of a good entertainer and more often than not, such films have worked wonders at the box office. And as sporting heroes are scripting history at the recently concluded Tokyo Olympics, back home filmmakers are hoping to draw inspiration from them for their next projects.

A Manipur-based film production company has already announced plans to make a biopic on the life of Saikhom Mirabai Chanu, who won the country’s first silver medal in women’s weightlifting event in Tokyo.

Now many anticipate that a rush of film announcements will soon follow in Bollywood based on or inspired by the lives and achievement of some of these sporting icons.

Filmmaker Tushar Hiranandani, who helmed the sports biopic on the shooter dadis, Saand Ki Aankh (2019), says, “Of course I am sure, already filmmakers, who want to make films on them, have reached out to these sports stars. I know that a lot of filmmakers are already thinking about it. It is a great moment for the country and such achievements should be chronicled on screen.”

He says he would like to explore a film on Indian women’s hockey team captain, Rani Rampal. “I love her journey to be captain. She has led from the front and it is a great individual story that I would look at. She truly is a Rani in the truest sense.”

Producer Anand Pandit too is looking to explore the idea of making a film on one of these Olympic heroes, considering how every achiever reaches where she or he does after making huge sacrifices that we know nothing about.

“I would want to celebrate these players who have fought so many battles to finally reach the victory podium. They are an inspiration because they have won global glory against all odds. Their journey needs to be documented for posterity because it is winners like these who show us all that anything is possible if you have a dream and the courage to pursue it. Right now, every player is an inspiration so to give a pat answer would not be right but yes, this thought is very much on my mind and I hope to see it translated on film,” he shares.

A biopic on PV Sindhu, who won a bronze this year in Tokyo, has already been in the works for two years now, while there is no official word out about the status of the film, a source shares that the makers will now have to rejig the script with this new win.

Trade analyst Atul Mohan says, “Some announcements are definitely round the corner. You know how our filmmakers are and they always want to cash in on the current topics. We will see some on hockey, wrestling, for sure. A film on Dhyan Chand is in the making and that will also get a great advantage now that the men’s hockey team won a bronze.”

However, on a slightly different note, filmmaker Anees Bazmee feels that it is way too soon to make films on the current Olympic heroes as they still have a long way to go in their careers.

“I am very proud with the performance but this is not their finale. To make a film immediately will not capture their future achievements which would be way better than what they did this year. It won’t be fair to make a film on them just yet. But I would love to make a sports biopic for sure but it is way too soon to do it on them for me,” he explains.

Echoing similar sentiment, trade analyst Komal Nahta also calls this idea a bit too premature. “There are already many sports biopic in the public domain which are in the making but to my knowledge there are no such plans as of now for any films on the Olympic heroes of this year. But I won’t be surprised if they do announce a few,” he explains.

And even if those that are planning these projects are yet to kick start the official process.

IMPPA (Indian Motion Picture Producers’ Association) secretary Anil Nagrath, informs, “As of now, we have got no requests for title registration for films on these Olympic heroes.”

A source from Indian Film and TV Producers Council stated that while there are no title registered yet, they are anticipating filmmaker to queue up soon to register films once the games are over and they have had done preliminary talks with the players.