Biopics have become a hot favorite topic for Bollywood filmmakers, especially the ones related to sports, as they are doing better business than masala movies. The biopic of Indian women wrestlers Geeta Phogat and Babita Phogat entitled “Dangal” has already become the highest grosser of Hindi cinema. What’s more, it earned $122.6 million in China in just 20 days, which is a record for any Hindi movie. Undoubtedly, it is motivating filmmakers to make more biopics; however, we can’t ignore the essential fact that “Dangal” stars the perfectionist of Bollywood, Aamir Khan, in a very important role.
The latest biopic to hit the theatres is “Sachin: A Billion Dreams”, which is the story of legendary Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar who is regarded as the God of cricket. Sachin is the only cricketer in the world to score 100 International centuries. Not only this, he has scored 34,000 runs in International cricket, which makes him the highest run scorer in the world. He has played 200 International Test Matches as well as captained the Indian side.
The biopic can’t be called a complete movie as it is a docudrama that not only shows the early life of the cricketer but also features other celebrities expressing their opinion about little master in the film itself. The writer and director of the movie is James Erskine, the Emmy-nominated British filmmaker, and the music is given by Oscar winner A R Rahman.
Tendulkar told AFP,
“There are personal moments in the film and some family footage. I know fans want to see something more than what they have in the last 24 years. Nobody knows what was going on in my mind at that time so we have spoken a lot about highs and lows and the line between me, my family and fans.”
Produced by Ravi Bhagchandka and Carnival Motion Pictures, the movie has been released in 4 languages, i.e., Hindi, English, Tamil and Telugu at 1200 locations.
Despite the fact that the trailer got 23 million views, how much the biopic would earn was little difficult to speculate for the industry experts, as Amul Mohan, Super Cinema editor, told Mumbai DNA,
“Sachin is cricket’s God and his popularity can’t be questioned… Even those who don’t follow cricket, know him. But having said that, you should understand that Sachin: A Billion Dreams is not a full-blown film, it’s a docudrama, so it is difficult to gauge now.”
Sumit Kadel, the trade analyst, said this to Koimoi in an interview before the release of the movie,
“Since it is a documentary film, I don’t have much box office expectations from it… I think it will collect approx Rs 10-12 crores [$750,000- $1.5 million] in the first weekend and make a lifetime collection of Rs 25-30 crores [$3.5 million-$5million].”
However, fans of master blaster seem to differ from the industry experts and they are visiting their nearest theatres to watch the movie. Sachin’s biopic got a good start with Rs 9 crores on its opening day and this figure is obviously expected to grow further. In fact, the movie will definitely do good in the weekend, so experts’ claims already seem to be wrong.
Well, it appears whatever Sachin does, his fans are always more than ready to support him.