Biopic Of Unsung Heroes You Did Not Know About
Posted On: 02 May 2022 | Last Updated : 19 Oct 2022 | Views : 1.2k
We have heroes and superheroes, then we have commoners who are no less than any hero depicted in Bollywood movies, and today we are going to talk about such people, who somehow inspired many with their actions. We see movies with fictional characters, but when it comes to heroism of a real-life person, we don’t get anything less than goose bumps. From making the stereotypical movies of fairy love stories with dramatic twists or action dramas with the heroes single-handedly bringing down dozens of goons, Bollywood has come a long way. In the recent past, Bollywood has been flooded with the biopics of sportspersons, ancient rulers, freedom fighters, etc. but there have been some people in the past, who might not have been as famed, but their actions and accomplishments couldn’t be undermined and surely deserved the recognition of the nation. Thus, we present to you the list of Bollywood Biopics on unsung heroes. For more such Bollywood-related updates, articles, topics, and trivia on movies and celebrities, stay tuned.
1. Shabnam Mausi (2005) – Shabnam
About Shabnam: Shabnam was born visibly intersex in a Brahmin family and at birth was given a masculine name. Soon after her birth, her father gave her away to protect his image in society. She was brought up by other eunuchs and traveled a lot and learned around 12 languages. In 1994, Hijras/transgender of India were granted voting rights and in 1998, Shabnam became the first Indian eunuch to be elected to the public office (MLA), and served in the Legislative Assembly for five years. She fought for many causes like unemployment, poverty, and hunger as well as discrimination against the transgender. She inspired many trans people to participate in mainstream activities and give up their traditional roles of dancers, singers, prostitutes, and beggars and set examples for many.
About The Movie: In 2005, a feature film titled Shabnam Mausi, directed by Yogesh Bharadwaj, was made on the life of Shabnam, in which Ashutosh Rana played the role of Shabnam Mausi. Despite her work and accomplishments, she didn’t get the recognition she deserved, but the movie made people aware of her story.
2. Shahid (2013) – Shahid Azmi
About Shahid Azmi: Born in a Muslim family in Mumbai, Shahid Azmi was arrested by Mumbai police for indulging in violence during the 1992 Mumbai communal riots. While serving his time in jail, Shahid completed his graduation and when he was acquitted of all charges, he went on to pursue a law degree (LLM) and started to practice as a criminal defense lawyer. He dedicated his career handling cases of people accused of terrorism, who he believed were actually just scapegoats. He had a soft corner for such people because of his own past experiences. At the age of 32, he was shot dead in his office by four right-wing assailants, who were against his work.
About The Movie: Directed by Hansal Mehta, Shahid featured Rajkummar Rao in the titular role. After continuous box-office failures, Hansal Mehta decided to take a break, but after hearing about Shahid Azmi’s murder, he decided to make a biopic on his life. He began to research more about his life and met Sameer Gautam Singh, the writer of the movie, who interviewed Shahid’s family and his colleagues to get more details of his life. The movie was critically acclaimed with Hansal Mehta receiving Best Director Award and Rajkummar Rao receiving the Best Actor Award at the National Film Awards ceremony.
3. Manjhi: The Mountain Man (2015) – Dashrath Manjhi
About Dashrath Manjhi: Dashrath Manjhi, also known as Mountain man, was an ordinary labourer in Gehlaur village near Gaya, Bihar. His village had a huge mountain that blocked the nearby town, and villagers had to take a long way of 90 km to reach the town and get access to basic facilities like schools, colleges, hospitals, etc. One day, Manjhi’s wife fell from the mountain and was injured badly. She couldn’t get medical access in time, thus she succumbed to the injuries and died. This left Manjhi devastated and he decided to cut a roadway across the ridge to make the village more accessible. He worked alone for 22 years to manually carve the mountain and finally was able to shorten the travel between his village and the nearest town to 15 km.
About The Movie: Manjhi – The Mountain Man is one of the best works of Nawazuddin Siddiqui. He enacted the role of Dashrath Manjhi, while Radhika Apte played his wife. Directed by Ketan Mehta, the movie opened to positive reviews and was praised for its storyline and cinematography. The movie helped to bring to light the problems faced by the villagers of such remote villages with no access to basic facilities.
4. Neerja (2016) – Neerja Bhanot
About Neerja Bhanot: Daughter of a Bombay-based journalist, Neerja Bhanot started her career as a model and later applied for a flight attendant job with PanAm in 1985. She got selected and was sent to Miami for the training of flight attendant and returned as a purser. She was the Senior Flight Purser on PanAm Flight 73 flying from Bombay to the United States via Karachi and Frankfurt, which was hijacked by four armed men on 5th September 1986, just two days prior to her 23rd birthday. The aircraft was carrying 380 passengers and 13 crew members. The hijackers wanted to fly to Cyprus to free the terrorists of their group from the Cyprus prison. The flight was stationed in Karachi, and somehow Neerja and other crew members were able to distract the hijackers and open the exit. She was shot while helping the passengers escape. Her heroic actions were praised by the nation, and posthumously was awarded the Ashoka Chakra and became the youngest recipient of the award.
About The Movie: Neerja Bhanot’s heroism inspired the 2016 biopic Neerja, directed by Ram Madhvani, featuring Sonam Kapoor in the titular role. The film was highly praised by critics as well as the audience and received several awards. Sonam Kapoor also received a National Film Award for her role in the movie.
5. Pad Man (2018) – Arunachalam Muruganantham
About Arunachalam Muruganantham: A social entrepreneur from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, Arunachalam Muruganantham is the inventor of the low-cost sanitary pad making machine. After his marriage, Arunachalam saw his wife collecting paper and rags to use during the menstrual cycle because the cost of sanitary pads was too high, which gave him the idea to create a low-costing sanitary napkin. However, when he started to work on his idea, he found no support from his family, but this didn’t stop him and he continued to work on it and created a very cheap sanitary napkin manufacturing machine. In 2006, he visited IIT Madras to show his idea and they registered his invention for the National Innovation Foundation’s Grassroots Technological Innovation Award, and he won it, which marked the first step of his success. Despite receiving offers from MNCs to commercialize his product, he continued to provide the machine to self-help groups at low costs and spread awareness about the traditional menstrual unhygienic practices in the rural areas.
About The Movie: Arunachalam’s journey was chronicled by actress Twinkle Khanna in her fictional story The Legend of Lakshmi Prasad, which further became the inspiration for the movie Pad Man, directed by R. Balki, featuring Akshay Kumar in the titular role. The movie was both critically acclaimed and commercially successful and received the Best Film Award at the 66th National Films Awards.
6. Raazi (2018) – Sehmat, a true account of a RAW agent
About the RAW Agent: Though the true identity of the RAW agent was never revealed, author Harinder S. Sikka was the first to record the life incidents of the agent, who risked her life for the nation, in her novel Calling Sehmat published in 2008. In 1971, prior to Indo-Pakistan War, a young college-going girl, upon her freedom-fighter Kashmiri Muslim father’s wish, agrees to marry a Pakistani army officer, the son of a high-ranking Pakistani army officer, in order to derive important information that could be used against Pakistan in the war. She undergoes the spy training by RAW and later succeeds in passing on all the vital information to her handlers post her marriage.
About The Movie: The 2018 spy thriller Raazi was based on the novel ‘Calling Sehmat’ by Harinder S. Sikka. Starring Alia Bhatt in the lead role and directed by Meghna Gulzar, the movie was surely an example of girl power. It emerged as one of the highest-grossing Indian films featuring female protagonists, while Meghna was praised for her direction and Alia for her performance, making the movie a commercial success as well as critically acclaimed. The movie went on to earn several awards too.
7. Kesari (2019) – Havaldar Ishar Singh
About Havaldar Ishar Singh: Havaldar Ishar Singh was an iconic personality known for his absolute bravery during the ‘Battle of Saragarhi’, where he proved himself as a true leader and put the safety of his troop before his. Born in an agricultural family, Ishar always dreamt of being a soldier and joined the Punjab Frontier Force at the age of 18 years in 1887. In 1897, a group of 21 soldiers of the 36th Regiment, led by Ishar Singh, was posted at Saragarhi, which was a target of the Afghan and Orakzai tribesmen. On 12th September 1897, a signalman warned the Lieutenant about more than 10,000 Afghans, but because of lack of time, he wasn’t able to send any additional help. Thus, the 21 soldiers, instead of retreating, fought the Afghans and killed more than 200 Afghans in the battle and defeated the enemies.
About The Movie: Jointly produced by Aruna Bhatia, Karan Johar, Hiroo Johar, Apoorva Mehta and Sunir Khetarpal, Kesari features Akshay Kumar in the titular role with Vikram Singh Chauhan, Sarwar, Vansh Bhardwaj, Jaspreet Singh, Vivek Saini, Vikram Kochhar and Rakesh Sharma in supporting roles. The movie follows the events of the Battle of Saragarhi between 21 Punjabi soldiers and over 10,000 Afghani tribesmen. The movie was released during the Holi festival and opened to a positive response and easily managed to enter the 100-crore club.
8. Super 30 (2019) – Anand Kumar
About Anand Kumar: The Indian Mathematics educator, Anand Kumar was born in a poor family in Bihar and attended a Hindi-medium government school. Over time, he developed a deep interest in mathematics and submitted papers on number theory, which also helped him to secure admission to the University of Cambridge, but he couldn’t afford to go there due to his financial condition. In 1992, he began his own coaching center, Ramanujan School of Mathematics, and taught maths for IIT-JEE preparation. In early 2000, he came across a poor student who couldn’t afford the fees of his coaching due to poverty, which inspired him to start his super 30 program, where he teaches 30 talented underprivileged children and prepares them for IIT-JEE. Since 2002, his coaching conducts a competitive exam to select 30 intelligent but poor students for his Super 30 program.
About The Movie: The 2019 biographical drama Super 30, directed by Vikas Behl, features Hrithik Roshan in the lead role of educator Anand Kumar. The movie is one of the best Bollywood biopics of unsung heroes, which tells not only Anand Kumar’s efforts but his family’s efforts and support to help the students achieve their dreams. The film was critically as well as commercially successful and was one of the highest-grossing films of 2019.
9. Saand Ki Aankh (2019) – Chandro & Prakashi Tomar
About Chandro and Prakashi Tomar: Chandro Tomar and Prakashi Tomar, often known as 'shooter dadi' and 'revolver dadi' respectively, were the sisters from Johri village, Uttar Pradesh, who had little to no education and were married off at an early age. When Shefali, Chandro’s granddaughter, joined the Johri Rifle Club, she was accompanied by her grandmother, who loaded the pistol and shot straight at the bull’s eye. Impressed by her, the club coach asked Chandro to join the club, and as destiny had it, Prakashi too joined the club. Initially, the two sisters faced opposition from their family, but they didn’t give up and went on to win several shooting championships and were regarded as one of the oldest sharpshooters in the world.
About The Movie: Based on the life of shooter sisters, Saand Ki Aankh, directed by Tushar Hiranandani, features Bhumi Pednekar as Chandro Tomar and Taapsee Pannu as Prakashi Tomar, the two old ladies who proved that age is just a number and if you are determined, you can make your dreams come true, no matter how old you are.
10. Chhapaak (2020) – Laxmi Agarwal
About Laxmi Agarwal: Born in a lower-middle-class family in Delhi, Laxmi was just 15 years old when she met with the biggest tragedy of her life. A man from her neighbourhood, who was in his early thirties then, proposed to Laxmi for marriage but she rejected him. Later, the same man’s elder brother and brother’s girlfriend attacked Laxmi with acid in the middle of a market. She fainted immediately and no one came for help, later a man took her to the hospital and called the police. The tragedy changed her life forever. Laxmi, the acid attack survivor, realized that there are many helpless acid attack survivors like her. She decided to dedicate her life to them and filed a PIL to ban the sale of acid and later started a hunger strike demanding immediate justice and rehabilitation for acid attack survivors.
About The Movie: Laxmi’s story is no less than a dramatic Bollywood story, where one tragic incident changes the life of the protagonist forever. Directed by Meghna Gulzar and featuring Deepika Padukone in the lead role as Laxmi Agarwal, Chhapaak is one of the Bollywood Biopics on unsung heroes of India, which highlights what an ordinary person is capable of doing, as all one needs are courage and determination.
11. Bhuj – The Pride of India (2021) – Squadron Leader Vijay Karnik
About Squadron Leader Vijay Karnik: Vijay Srinivas Karnik is a retired Wing Commander of the Indian Air Force, who is well-known for his leadership during the 1971 Indo-Pakistani War at the Bhuj Air Base. On 8th December 1971, Pakistan attacked the Bhuj airbase by dropping 14 Napalm bombs. The airstrip was damaged and required urgent rebuilding because of the ongoing war. Due to a lack of workers, Vijay Karnik convinced the women in Bhuj to help build the airstrip, who was able to finish it within 72 hours. Later, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi recognized and awarded those women and Karnik for their contributions.
About The Movie: Abhishek Dudhaiya’s biographical war drama, Bhuj: The Pride of India features Ajay Devgn in the role of Vijay Karnik. The movie is set during the Indo-Pakistani War in 1971 and follows the events where Squadron Leader Vijay Karnik, in charge of Bhuj Air Force Base, convinces 300 local women to help reconstruct the damaged airstrip during the ongoing war.
12. Gangubai Kathiawadi (2022) – Gangubai Harjeevandas
About Gangubai Harjeevandas: Indian social activist, prostitute, and madam of the brothel, Gangubai Harjeevandas, also known as Gangubai Kothewali or Gangubai Kathiwadi, worked for the upliftment and well-being of the sex workers and their children. At the age of 15, she was sold into prostitution by her suitor in Kamathipura, Bombay. Later, she became an influential pimp in the Kamathipura area. Gangubai was known to have a heart of gold, and she counseled many girls forced into the prostitution business and also helped them return to their homes. Later in her life, she also met Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to discuss the plight of the sex workers and improvise their condition. After her death, the people of Kamathipura enacted her statues and photographs all around the area in her honour.
About The Movie: For the first time, Gangubai’s story was documented in Hussain Zaidi’s crime novel ‘Mafia Queens of Mumbai’ (2011), which became the basis for Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s 2022 biographical crime drama Gangubai Kathiawadi, starring Alia Bhatt. Alia Bhatt was praised for her performance by both critics and the audience, and the movie opened to a positive response making it a super-hit.
13. Jhund (2022) – Vijay Barse
About Vijay Barse: Born in 1945, Vijay Barse is a social worker from Nagpur. In 2001, while being on the verge of his retirement, Vijay Barse, a sports teacher in a college, spotted some underprivileged children in slums playing makeshift football, which gave him an idea to start a soccer club for the talented underprivileged children and help them an uplift. Soon after, he started the Krida Vikas Sanstha Nagpur with the support of his wife Ranjana Barse and son, Abhijeet Barse.
About The Movie: For the first time, Vijay Barse’s story was unveiled on an episode of the TV show ‘Satyamev Jayate’, hosted by Aamir Khan. However, the movie Jhund based on the life of this activist helped people learn about his struggles and efforts to make the dream of his NGO soccer club come true. The movie is directed by Nagraj Manjule with Amitabh Bachchan portraying Vijay Barse.
14. Maidaan (2022) – Syed Abdul Rahim
About Syed Abdul Rahim: Popularly known as Rahim Saab, Syed Abdul Rahim was an Indian football coach and manager of the Indian national football team from 1950 to 1963. He is credited for his contributions to modernizing Indian football techniques. Not only a good teacher, but Syed Abdul Rahim was also a good motivator, and his tenure as a coach was regarded as the ‘golden age' of football in India, as he led the Indian football team to win many gold medals in Sports Championships.
About The Movie: Starring Ajay Devgn as Syed Abdul Rahim, the 2022 biographical sports drama Maidaan is directed by Amit Ravindernath Sharma. The movie follows the life events of Indian football coach Syed Abdul Rahim and highlights the events during the golden era of Indian football (1952-1962).
15. Gour Hari Dastaan: The Freedom File (2015) - Gour Hari Das
About Gour Hari Das: Gour Hari Das was a freedom fighter from Odisha who had actively participated in India’s freedom struggle and apparently was made to fight a long battle in the court against his own government to prove his patriotic association towards the nation. The silent war lasted for nearly 32 years before he received a certificate of recognition for his work as a freedom fighter at the age of 84.
About The Movie: Vinay Pathak played the titular role portraying the freedom fighter’s life and struggle to obtain the much sought-after certificate which is ultimately awarded to him ending in a bittersweet victory. The film also starred Konkona Sen Sharma, Ranvir Shorey, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Vikram Gokhale, and Vipin Sharma and was directed by Anant Mahadevan.
