Bollywood mirrors society and society mirrors Bollywood. In many ways, movies have shaped and inspired the lives of many and it’s the opposite also when many lives have inspired Bollywood and it works in both ways. Movies are all about stories and many times there are so many true life stories that are so interesting that movies were made on them. Hollywood has always been famous for making movies that are inspired by true stories and in the last couple of decades we have seen this trend in Bollywood also where movies were inspired by real-life incidents. Here we have created a list of five Bollywood movies that were inspired by real-life incidents.
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Black Friday
Black Friday directed by Anurag Kashyap is one of the best movies ever made in Bollywood. Black Friday was based on a book by the same name written by Hussain S Zaidi and it was based on the horrific 1993 Bombay bomb blasts and the inquiry that took place after it. In 1993, three serial bomb blasts in Bombay ( now Mumbai) shook the whole of India. It was a response to the riots that took place after the demolition of the Babri Masjid. In the riots, many lives and properties of millions were lost and in one such incident, the shop of a Muslim businessman Tiger Memon was burnt by rioters and he decides to avenge it. He gathers a group of brainwashed young Muslim boys, gives them training in Pakistan, gets RDX in Mumbai with the help of notorious gangster Dawood Ibrahim and succeeds in carrying out three serial bomb blasts in which hundreds of lives were lost. The movie perfectly shows how they planned and executed the blasts and the inquiry and arrests made after it. Pawan Malhotra played the role of Tiger Memon and Kay Kay Menon played the role of police officer Rakesh Maria who was in charge of the police team at the helm of the case. The movie was initially banned because of the court proceedings and it received rave reviews after release. It’s one of the best movies which was inspired by real-life incidents.
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Shootout at Lokhandwala
Shootout at Lokhandwala was based on the 1991 Lokhandwala Complex shootout, where a real-life gun battle between gangsters and the Bombay Police took place. The movie was directed by Apoorva Lakhia and featured an ensemble cast of Sanjay Dutt, Vivek Oberoi, Arbaaz Khan, Suniel Shetty, Tushar Kapoor, and Rohit Roy along with cameos by Amitabh and Abhishek Bachchan. The shootout took place in Lokhandwala Complex on 16 November 1991, between the gang of dreaded gangster Maya Dolas played by Vivek Oberoi, and 400 armed policemen led by Aftab Ahmed Khan, head of the ATS, played by Sanjay Dutt. The movie got thumbs up from both the critics and the audiences when it was released in the year 2007. A sequel Shootout at Wadala was also released a few years later which was also a success.
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Dangal
Dangal starring Aamir Khan, Sakshi Tiwari, Sanya Malhotra, and Fatima Sana Sheikh is a biographical sports drama movie that was inspired by the lives of real-life wrestler Mahavir Phogat and his daughters Babita and Geeta Phogat who brought laurels to India by winning many international medals in wrestling. The movie was directed by Nitesh Tiwari and it is the highest-earning Bollywood movie since that as it earned above 200 crores worldwide. Dangal was released in 2016 and is considered one of the best movies based on real-life people and incidents. Aamir Khan played the role of Mahavir Phogat, a national champion wrestler who dreams of winning medals for his country but is not able to do so because of some reasons and afterward, he trains his daughters Geeta and Babita to become wrestlers and fulfill his dreams of winning medals for India. The movie got rave reviews from the critics and audiences thronged into theatres to watch it. It became the highest-grossing Bollywood movie ever then and still, it’s the highest-grossing Indian movie earning 2000 crores worldwide much of which came from China where it earned $216.2 million and became one of the country’s top 20 highest-grossing films and the highest-grossing non-English foreign film in China.
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Padman
Padman featured Akshay Kumar and Radhika Apte in the lead roles along with Sonam Kapoor and it was directed by R. Balki. Padman was based on the life of Arunachalam Muruganantham, a real-life social activist and entrepreneur from Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu who made low-cost sanitary pads for women in rural areas. His story was first written by Twinkle Khanna, wife of Akshay Kumar in her book The Legend of Laxmi Prasad from which Akshay Kumar took inspiration and decided to make a movie on him. The setting of the movie was changed from South India to North India to match the taste of Bollywood and some incidents were fictionalised. Muruganantham worked closely with the team of the movie to make sure that most of the details are accurate including how he made the machine, how it operated, etc. The movie was released on 9 February 2018 and became a critical and commercial success.
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Uri: The Surgical Strike
Uri: The Surgical Strike was inspired by the surgical strike by the Indian army on terrorist camps in Pakistan as a response to the attack on the brigade headquarters at Uri, Jammu, and Kashmir at dawn, by militants where they killed 19 soldiers in their sleep. Vicky Kaushal played the role of Major Vihaan Shergill of the Para (Special Forces), who leads the team of Indian army men who go for a surgical strike in Pakistan, the first of this type of surgical strike carried out by an Indian on foreign soil. The movie was directed by Aditya Dhar and produced by Ronnie Screwvala of RSVP Movies. The movie was released on 11 January 2019 and became a surprise hit by earning more than 200 crores at the box office. Vicky Kaushal was highly appreciated for his performance and he went on to win a National Award for it.
