Rajkumar Hirani on Why a Success Story Isn’t Enough for a Biopic
After Sanju, Rajkumar Hirani explains why he hasn't rushed his next biopic: he wants failures, contradictions and a subject willing to show the ugly parts.
Years after Sanju released in 2018, Rajkumar Hirani has explained why his next biopic is still not locked. The offers have kept coming. What is stopping him, he says, is what most of those offers actually are: clean, flattering success stories.
What Hirani is looking for
In a new interview, Hirani drew a clear line between a life that is marketable and a life that is cinematic. For him, a biopic needs more than professional achievements. It needs struggle, contradiction and a person who has faced real uncertainty.
“A simple success story doesn’t excite me that much,” Hirani said.
The qualities he listed are specific:
- Major ups and downs, not a straight climb
- Failure, mistakes and personal contradictions
- Difficult choices and complicated relationships
- Periods when the person did not know how the story would end
- A willingness to share unflattering and painful chapters
Why Sanju worked
The 2018 film starred Ranbir Kapoor as Sanjay Dutt, with Paresh Rawal, Vicky Kaushal, Anushka Sharma and Manisha Koirala in key roles. It dealt with addiction, media scrutiny, personal mistakes and relationships, and became a commercial success.
Hirani credits the film’s depth to the access Dutt gave him.
“He was willing to lay himself bare — the good, the bad, the embarrassing, and the painful,” Hirani said.
That honesty, Hirani believes, is what produced a human being on screen instead of a famous person’s highlight reel.
Why the next film is taking time
Since Sanju, Hirani has received several offers to direct biopics on other real-life personalities. He has not rushed into one. His next choice, he indicated, will depend on finding a subject whose life has emotional depth and who is also prepared to show the unflattering side of it.
That is a meaningful bar. Hirani rarely chooses a project quickly, and when he does, expectations are high. Holding out for a messier, more honest story suggests he would rather wait than make a reverential biopic that says nothing new.
For audiences, the takeaway is straightforward. The next Hirani biopic will happen when a subject is brave enough to be seen as they are, not just as they would like to be remembered.
Source: Bollywood Hungama
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