44 | FORBES ASIA NOVEMBER 2016M.
S. Dhoni: The Untold Story, director Neeraj
Pandey’s dramatization of the life of cricket
star Mahendra Singh Dhoni, is now the high-
est-earning biopic ever in the history of Indian cinema.
After three weekends the three-hour epic has grossed
over $27 million in India and $4.5 million in the rest of the
world. It stars Sushant Singh Rajput as the former ticket
collector who captained India’s team to its World Cup
victory in Mumbai in 2011; Disha Patani makes her Bolly-
wood debut as his former girlfriend.
Earlier this year Ram Madhvani’s Neerja, which starred
Sonam Kapoor as the 23-year-old flight attendant who sac-
rificed her life trying to save hijacked passengers at Karachi
airport in 1986, rang up a hefty $11.3 million in India. And
there were healthy runs for Tony D’Souza’s Azhar, loosely
based on the personal and public upheavals of another for-
mer Indian cricket captain, Mohammad Azharuddin, and
Omung Kumar’s Sarbjit, the saga of an Indian farmer who
was arrested in Pakistan in 1990, convicted on charges of ter-
rorism and spying and sentenced to death.
Kumar made his directing debut
with the 2014 hit Mary Kom, which
starred Priyanka Chopra as India’s
five-time world boxing champion
who became an inspiration for young
women in her country. The trend is set
to continue with Nitesh Tiwari’s Dan-
gal, starring Aamir Khan as wrestling
coach Mahavir Singh Phogat, whose
daughter Geeta Phogat was India’s first
female wrestler to win a gold medal in
that sport at the 2010 Commonwealth
Games, while her sister Babita Kumari
won the silver medal. The Disney India
production is scheduled to open on
Dec. 23.
Also in the pipeline are two feature-
length documentaries, Sachin: A Billion
Dreams, Australian director James
Erskine’s profile of Sachin Tendulkar,
the former Indian cricket captain who
some regard as the greatest batsman ofall time; and Brahmanand S. Siingh’s Kagaz Ki Kashti, a biopic
of popular Indian singer/composer Jagjit Singh, who died
from a brain hemorrhage in London in 2011.
Dhoni scored even better than Indian exhibitors hoped.
Kamal Gianchandani, CEO of PVR Cinemas, the nation’s
biggest circuit, had predicted it would net upwards of
$15 million. “That it would take such a flying start surprised
everyone,” he says. “But that is the power of brand Dhoni.”
Bollywood Hungama analyst Taran Adarsh believes
the blockbuster figures disprove the notions that sports
films don’t work universally, that only A-list stars can draw
crowds and that films lacking action and popular songs
can’t succeed. “Any film that is engaging and entertaining
will do big numbers,” Gianchandani observes. “Sports films
that feed our appetite for the underdog story tend to have a
higher success ratio.”
Says Vijay Singh, CEO of Fox Star Studios, which pro-
duced and released Neerja and co-produced Dhoni: “We
are extremely humbled by the response from Dhoni fans,
cricket lovers and movie audiences alike.... Fans glob-
ally have showered their love on
the most successful Indian cricket
captain.”
However, the film is not being
released in Pakistan after the local
distributor IMGC Entertainment
opted not to submit a print to Paki-
stan’s Central Board of Film Cen-
sors following threats made by the
Indian nationalist party, Maharash-
tra Navnirman Sena (MNS), against
Pakistani artists. That followed a Sep-
tember terrorist attack on an army
base in Kashmir that killed 18 Indian
soldiers and wounded 30, for which
India blamed Pakistan.
Sabina Islam, the distributor’s
media and marketing manager, told
local media, “We wouldn’t want to re-
lease anything that can aggravate the
current situation of the two countries.
Dhoni is India’s hero, so it’s risky.”Big Hitters
BY DON GROVESMoviegoers in India are increasingly embracing
biopics, especially those featuring cricket stars.
FORBES ASIABOLLYWOOD JOCKS
The untold story of M.S. Dhoni is now being told—
to the tune of $27 million in India and counting. F