In the closing minutes of “Dangal” (“Wrestling Bout”), the protagonist, a doughty 22 year-old female wrestler from rural India, triumphs in the 2010 Commonwealth Games. As she accepts the gold medal on the podium and the national anthem is played, film audiences across India have stood up from their seats in standing ovations. Estimates place the domestic box-office takings at around $60m; the biopic has smashed all box office records to become the highest-grossing movie in the history of Bollywood.
Most of the country’s prominent athletes have been immortalised in film. M.S. Dhoni’s “Untold Story” was told last year. Mary Kom, the country’s first female boxer to win a medal, was played by Priyanka Chopra in 2014. In 2012, “Paan Singh Tomar” traced the story of a steeple-chase champion turned bandit. A recurring theme in these films is the state governments’ lack of money for sport due to squeezed budgets or graft; when athletes prevail, they do so thanks to their own unyielding resolve. In “Dangal”, the protagonist and her sister are trained on mattresses and in mud-pits rather than synthetic mats and wrestling arenas. It reflects the lack of national sporting infrastructure. In the 1948 Olympics, India’s football team played barefoot. Deepa Karmakar, a gymnast, honed her craft on rudimentary equipment that included locally-made parallel bars that were uneven and the wrong size. It makes it all the more impressive that she finished fourth at last year’s Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro.
These films often distract audiences from recent underwhelming performances by hearkening back to a more successful period. Field hockey, once considered India’s national sport, is now languishing; in Rio, the men’s team reached the knock-out stages for the first time in 36 years but eventually placed eighth. The women’s team—who have also failed to qualify in that time—continued their unlucky streak. “Chak De! India” (“Go for it! India”), which draws inspiration from the women’s path to victory at the 2002 Commonwealth Games, is wildly popular because it capitalises on this nostalgia. Shah Rukh Khan, India’s biggest superstar, plays the barnstorming coach to the rag-tag bunch of women; the Davids that vanquish Australia’s Goliath in the final. Current success stories may be hard to come by, but Bollywood is finding plenty of rousing material in the archives.
For many decades, sporting success on the global stage and the country’s morale has been tightly interwoven. As scandal-dogged politicians graced the front pages of national newspapers, individuals looked to sport for role models and hero-worshipped individuals who kept the country’s chin up with their buccaneering performances on foreign soils. More than that, sport has been seen as a statement of self-determination. Oscar-nominated “Lagaan” (2001) followed drought-stricken villagers as they took on British colonial officers on the cricket field to win relief from oppressive taxes. Audiences cheered as the last ball was smacked over the boundary. “Bhag Milkha Bhag” (“Run Milkha Run”, 2013), a biopic of Milkha Singh, India’s fastest sprinter, was also cheered for its thrilling portrayal of his triumph over Pakistan’s athlete in Lahore in 1960. Feel-good films spiked with nationalistic fervour make for an intoxicating combination.
For an industry renowned for its fluffy romances, few things get Indian audiences excited like a pacy sports film. The enthusiasm is matched in participation levels, too: private leagues in football, cricket, hockey, badminton, wrestling and Kabaddi, an ancient contact sport, battle with soap operas for primetime slots. The inaugural season of the Pro Kabaddi League in 2014 attracted 430m viewers. If the government provided more support for athletes, Bollywood’s film-makers would likely be furnished with more stories to tell.