DEPARTMENT OF MASS COMMUNICATION &

JOURNALISM

Research Project
on
Impact of Sport’s Biopics in Hindi Cinema
Submitted by

Shubhangi Misra
1214-17-094-010

Under the guidance of

Prof. P L Vishweshwar Rao

MA Mass Communication & Journalism

MA II year Semester IV

St. Joseph’s Degree and PG College

March 2019

Academic Year: 2017-2019

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 ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I take this opportunity to express my profound gratitude and deep regards to my

guide P L Vishweshwar Rao, Director of St. Joseph’s Degree and PG college for his

guidance, monitoring and constant encouragement throughout the course of this

dissertation project. I also express my Gratitude to the lecturers of the Department

and also my fellow mates for helping me and guiding me during the course of this

dissertation project. I also express my sincere thanks to Rev. Fr. Prof. Vincent

Arokiadas, Principal, St Joseph’s Degree and P.G College and all other staff of the

college for their valuable support towards the completion of the dissertation project.

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 DECLARATION

I, Shubhangi Misra hereby declare that this research project entitled ‘Impact

of Sports Biopics in Hindi Cinema’ submitted to St. Joseph’s Degree & PG

College is an original and genuine research work with ethical considerations in

terms of human sample and minimum plagiarism carried out by me under the

guidance of Prof. P L Vishweshwar Rao, Director of St. Joseph’s Degree & PG

College, Hyderabad and that it has not formed the basis for the award of any

degree/diploma/associateship/fellowship or any other similar title to any

candidate of any university.

Signature of the guide

Signature of Candidate

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 CERTIFICATION

This is to certify that the project report titled ‘Impact of Sports Biopic in Hindi

Cinema’ submitted in fulfilment for the award of MA program to Department

of Mass Communication & Journalism, St Joseph’s Degree and PG College,

Hyderabad, was carried out by Shubhangi Misra under my guidance. This has

not been submitted to any other university or Institution for the award of any

degree/diploma/fellowship.

Prof. P L Vishweshwar Rao

Director

Department of Mass Communication

St. Joseph’s Degree and PG College

Signature of guide

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 Abstract

This research paper deals with the impact of Sports Biopics on the Hindi

Cinema in India. India as we know is a land of innumerable customs and

traditions, added to that are the two modern traditions which are Movies and

Sports. Generally, we see that there are just few sports scenes in movies, that

brings lot of cheer to the audience. Now, things have changed a lot and there

are few of the selected Indian Hindi Sports Biopics movies, which have brought

inspirational change on the viewers and which have considered as the super hit

movies and contributed largely to the development of sports culture among

Indian youth are reviewed and presented. This study also examines

characteristics of sports movies in India and how they have been faring with

comparison to other Genre of movies. This paper focuses on three different

characteristics including emotional connect with the audience, story of the

movie and box office performance of sports movies. The major results are as

follows: firstly, there were similarities between the story and the box office

collection. Also, the similarities with the sports like Cricket getting lot of

attention even with not a very big star. Understandably so as India is a Cricket

freak nation. It was found in this study that there are almost 60% of the sample

size wanting to watch a Sports Biopic rather than any other Genre. This is a big

jump in thought process of the individuals. If we look at the Industry

perspective, most sports movies were mainly produced by human genre and all

age movie classification. However, the bigger the actor the bigger the movie

had collected in the Box office. Next, there were also similarities between both

sports movies in terms of external characteristics such as gender difference of

hero or heroine, internal story structure and their story sources. Most of sports

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movies have used real stories as movie story. Finally, although many of the

sports movies recorded the high degree of expenditures, the movie industry

feels that it is now the trend to be followed and that’s where the real business

is. We would see that there will be lot more biopics made in the coming years.

Reason being the sports biopics as a concept has moved from a superstar

version. We see that there are movies made in every sport. Talk about Cricket,

Hockey, Wrestling, Boxing, Athletics, and so on. Indian movie industry has

understood that there is lot of content lying in the lives of great players which

has to be shown to the audience. That’s where we are seeing sports biopics are

on upwards trend and in no time we would see them becoming the top genre to

watch out for.

Also the bigger advantage has been the outreach to the audience. Thanks to the

digital medium it has actually got easier to market the product to the audience.

Just not that even the audience are having the choice of watching the sports of

their wish which is why the viewership for sports across India is also on

uptrend.

All that is needed now for Indian Bollywood Industry is to

continue to make bigger sports movies and make sports part of every citizen of

India. This way the sport gets lot of awareness and people start talking and

experiencing them. That’s how there is always a link between the Movies and

the growth of India. It might not be direct relationship but it’s going to have a

major psychological impact on an individual which is what is required to make

India bigger and better sports nation.

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 Table of Contents

1. Purpose of the Study 8

2. Introduction to the Research Study 9-13

3. Aims and Objectives 14

4. Research Design 15-

4.1 Data Collection Process 15

4.2 Target Population 16

4.3 Methodology 17-18

4.4 Sampling Technique 19

4.5 Contact Methods 20

4.6 Reasons for Selected Sampling 21

4.7 Quantitative Research 22

4.8 Nature of Respondents 23

4.9 Purpose of Questionnaire 24

4.10 Limitations and Delimitations 25

4.11 Utility of Research 26

5. Review of Literature 27-36

6. Hypothesis 37

7. Data Presentation, Interpretation and Data Analysis 38-66

8. Conclusion 67-68

9. Bibliography & References 69

10. Appendix 70-75

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 Chapter 1: Purpose of the Study

A sports film is a film genre that uses sport as the theme of a film. While the

sports film may be defined as a production in which a sport, sporting event,

athlete (and their sport), or follower of sport (and the sport they follow) are

prominently featured, and which depend on sport to a significant degree for

their plot motivation or resolution, sport is ultimately rarely the central concern

of such films. Rather, sport performs primarily role in the sports film genre.

Furthermore, sports fans are not necessarily the target demographic in such

movies, but sports fans tend to have a large following or respect for such

movies. Thus, using this Study, I propose to find out the behaviour of audience

towards the Sports Biopics.

The purpose of the research was to study the impact and effect of Sports

Biopics in Hindi Cinema in the field of Media & Entertainment. This study was

conducted in order to find out the responses directly from the movie goers and

their opinions on the Hindi Cinemas.

This research method respondents were widely spread between age group of

18-40 years. In the recent past we have seen that the Bollywood Industry has

been increasing their movies in the field of Biopics, especially in the Sports

Biopics. The major purpose of this study is to find out the link between the

movies and the motivation of the audience and as well look at the revenues

generated through the Sports Biopics Movies. As I said, this study was taken

up to get real insights from the Public/Viewers on Sports Movies.

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 Chapter 2: Introduction: ‘Sports Biopics in India and

their impact on Bollywood’

Sports and Movies are two different yet very important entertainment tools in

India. It’s all boiling down to the point of communication and influence. In

India Sports Personalities have huge influence on the people, per say it’s the

same with any of the famous personality. Indians find a role model and take

them as an inspiration. Likewise, the human minds are always searching for a

person to take them as an example, none better than sports personalities.

Cricket in India is like a National Religion and every state have their own

favourite Sports. Indian movie industry and the fans have welcomed the biopics

of the celebrities, athletes, politicians etc. but it’s the Sports stars movies which

are gaining the advantage over other Biopics. They are gaining a rapid

momentum and people are extremely satisfied with the way the movies are

directed and casting is done.

Within the trend of biopics, however, it is curious to notice that it is the sports

related biopics that have had the highest amount of popularity. India's adoration

for its sports heroes, though not free of cricket bias, is actually heart-warming

and the stories that these mass favourite sports stars have to tell is also equally

intriguing. Riding on the popularity, while some sports heroes have charged

whopping amounts, some have accepted nothing and some had just been

measly paid. We have seen movies like Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, Dangal, Chak

De India, MS Dhoni – The Untold Story, Sachin’s movie. All these movies

have been inspiring the fans as well as earning big bucks.

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As expected, compared to Hollywood, Bollywood is a relative novice,

especially in the art of making sports biopics. Till date, many sports biopics

have been made in the US and they stretch into various disciplines. One of the

first names that come to mind is Chariots of Fire. It was released in 1981 and

told the story of Eric Liddell and Harold Abraham, a couple of British athletes,

and their attempt to take part in the 1924 Olympics. Where as in India the first

Sports Biopic that we remember is Chak De India which in fact isn’t

completely a sport star story. Stories of MSD, Milkha Singh and Mary Kom

are the one’s which caught the attention of Indian audience.

Like wise Ali, made in 2001, was on the legendary boxer Muhammad Ali, and

starred Will Smith in the titular role. Coming back to Indian movie industry, it

has normally been seen that a lot of directors like to make biopics for the simple

reason that they offer a chance at new content, something that is refreshing for

the audience and also much different from the stuff they are used to seeing. In

most cases, these films are made either on iconic sporting figures, about whose

struggle and success people are willing to know and draw inspiration from, or

about ordinary athletes whose stories are captivating. In any case, it is a win-

win situation for all.

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Let’s look at biopics and how they have performed at Bollywood Box Office.

1. Dangal (2016) – 387.38 crore

2. MS Dhoni The Untold Story (2016) – 133.04 crore

3. Gold (2018) – 110 crores

4. Bhaag Milkha Bhaag (2013) – 108.93 crore

5. Azhar (2016) – 56.8 crore

6. Mary Kom (2014) – 56.5 crore

7. Sachin: A Billion Dreams (2017) – 50.89 crore

8. Soorma (2018) – 47.54 crore

9. Paan Singh Tomar (2012) – 15 crores

These are the few movies which have made it big at box office. Considering

the years gap and inflation correction, the figures would jump high for movies

like Paan Singh Tomar and Mary Kom. Not to forget Chak De India which has

collected inflation corrected figure of 127 crores as on 2017. The story of real

heroes, full of passion and determination definitely makes for good on-screen

content and thus the trend of biopics has been a successful experiment as far as

box office is concerned as reflecting in this list above.

If you think this is yet in the industry, then just hold on as we are yet to see

more and more movies coming this year. Few biopics on the cards include:

• The Saina Nehwal biopic: The film on the ace badminton player will

see Shraddha Kapoor play the title role. The Amol Gupte directed film

will go on floors later this year.

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• ’83: Ranveer Singh plays Kapil Dev in the sports biopic on the India’s

1983 Cricket World Cup win. The Kabir Khan directed film is slated

for release on 10 April, 2020.

• The Mithali Raj biopic: Viacom18 Motion Pictures has announced a

film on the life of the captain of the Indian Women’s Cricket team. The

producers are yet to announce a cast or director.

• The Abhinav Bindra biopic: Harshvardhan Kapoor is slated to play the

lead role in a film on the life of the legendary shooter. To be directed

by Kannan Iyer, the film will hit screens in 2019.

• The Pullela Gopichand biopic: An untitled biopic on ace badminton

player Pullela Gopichand has been announced by Fox Star Studios

along with Vikram Malhotra’s Abundantia Entertainment. The

producers are yet to finalise a director or cast for the film that will

reportedly be made both in Hindi and Telugu.

• The Dhyan Chand biopic: Filmmaker Pooja Shetty has announced a

film on the life of the great hockey player. Names ranging from Varun

Dhawan to Shah Rukh Khan have been thrown up but none locked yet.

• The PV Sindhu biopic: Actor Sonu Sood is producing a film on the

young badminton player. While names like Deepika Padukone have

been thrown up, a final decision on the cast has not been made yet.

• The PT Usha biopic: Director Revathy S. Varmha will make a film on

the legendary athlete in English to be dubbed in four other languages,

Hindi, Malayalam, Chinese and Russian. While a final cast is yet to be

announced, actor Priyanka Chopra seems to be the front runner for the

title role.

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 • The Murlikant Petkar biopic: Actor Sushant Singh Rajput has

reportedly been signed on to play the differently abled sportsman who

won the gold at the 1970 Commonwealth Games and the Paralympics

in Germany in 1972. The film is to be directed by Prashant Singh.

Thus, the theme of this research study is to understand the impact of Sports

Biopics on Individuals and how with each movie the Industry and fans have

been accepting the stories and giving them big thumbs up by watching them on

big screen which turn makes big money for the movie makers.

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 Chapter 3: Aims and Objectives of the Study

Aims and Objectives:

Aims of the Study:

1. To study the role of Sports Biopics on the behaviour of the People

2. To analyse the sports biopics and their impact on the Bollywood

industry

3. To understand the ‘Sports Biopic’ as a genre in Indian Movie industry

Objectives of the Study:

1. To distinguish and understand the sports and celebrity biopics in India

2. To quantify the impact of Sports Biopics on the Indian Movie goers

3. To understand the Sports movies marketing and the box office earnings

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 4. RESEARCH DESIGN

4.1Data Collection Process - The process of gathering and

measuring information.

Data collection is the process of gathering and measuring information on

targeted variables in an established system, which then enables one to answer

relevant questions and evaluate outcomes. It becomes crucial part of the initial

stages of any research, thus the data collection should be handled carefully with

proper measures.

This research uses quantitative analysis for answering the questions of the

research questionnaire. Quantitative data is gathered through the online source

and the respondents are the well aware of Hindi Cinema and the trending sports

Biopics. The data for this study was collected through survey and interviews.

The survey data was directly collected from Google Docs, organized and

interpreted into three research areas for the purpose of answering three major

research questions in this thesis, without any intervention and manipulation.

Overall, this survey conducted and interview results were matched to answer

the first question about the Sport Biopics in Hindi Cinema’ and its importance;

the survey data covered the questions about the Sport Biopics’ platform and

length; and on the content and its impact on the audience. Survey results have

been taken into excel and were presented in words, numbers, and figures to

answer the related research questions.

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 4.2 Target Population

Target population refers to the ‘Entire Universe’ group of individuals or

objects to which researchers are interested in generalizing the conclusions. The

target population usually has varying characteristics and it is also known as the

theoretical population. It has to be properly determined by the researcher and

research must be conducted within the limits of the Target.

Selecting the target population wasn’t a tough task as it is a research relating to

the topic which is connected to the hobbies or interests of the Individuals.

That’s where the picking up of Target from the for this research was easier and

not time taking process. But any research cannot have ‘A to Z’ as target, in

such cased the research would be biased and wouldn’t give us any accurate

result. Thus the first level of Target Population for this research study are only

those who fall under age bracket 18-35 and those who have watched at least

one Sports Biopics from Hindi Cinema. These were taken as sample for the

research. Sports as a Genre in movie is a special category of entertainment by

itself, thus any person who has watched a Sports Movies would be eligible

enough to become a respondent.

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 4.3 Methodology

Research methodology is a systematic way to solve a problem. It is a science

of studying how research is to be carried out. Essentially, the procedures by

which researchers go about their work of describing, explaining and predicting

phenomena are called research methodology. It is also defined as the study of

methods by which knowledge is gained. Its aim is to give the work plan of

research.

For example, a researcher not only needs to know how to calculate mean,

variance and distribution function for a set of data, how to find a solution of a

research described by mathematical model, how to apply a particular method

but should also need to know

(i) which is a suitable method for the chosen problem?

(ii) what is the order of accuracy of the result of a method?

(iii) what is the efficiency of the method?

and so on. Consideration of these aspects constitute a research methodology.

It will happen that the methodology used by one researcher to another

researcher vary but the most important point in research methodology is look

at the logical accuracy behind setting up a particular methodology.

The Methodology used for this study is quantitative analysis from the chosen

sample. Firstly, the researcher would gather the data through the ‘Google Docs’

Then the analysis is made and visualised in various graphical image formats.

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The Graphical Data is now scrutinised and analysed to bring out the

interpretations from the research and then concluded with the possible results.

The method used for working on this study will be mostly secondary data

based. There will also be a component of interview where in the respondents

would be asked number of questions on the importance, impact, acceptability,

casting of the actors in the Sports Biopic. This it would be a nonprobability

sampling with a different interview questions. It would be a study mixed of

qualitative and quantitative study.

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 4.4 Sampling Technique:

Sampling helps a lot in research. It is one of the most important factors which

determines the accuracy of your research/survey result. If anything goes wrong

with your sample then it will be directly reflected in the final result. There are

lot of techniques which help us to gather sample depending upon the need and

situation. There are different sampling techniques present in the research

subject which will allow the researcher to pick the perfect sample to carry on

the study so that he will get accurate result. Of the available sampling

techniques, I have chosen ‘Non-Probability Convenience sampling’ for my

research study.

The Sampling technique used for this research process would be non-

probability sampling in which the research is based on Conveniently choosing

the sample based on the availability of the respondents.

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 4.5 Contact Methods

Researcher has to understand that the Contact Methods turn out to be the heart

of the study. Because, remember that Research Methods consist of surveys,

experimentation and observation. The contact methods form part of Primary

Data collection. They tend to give us the bulk of our information related to

customer trends and buying behaviours etc. Typically, these Contact Methods

include mail, telephone, focus groups, and various other online technologies or

the most time taking yet result oriented contact methods is the direct interaction

with the respondent. In this research the Respondents were contacted through

the online platform. Google Forms was the method used to collect the data and

used for analysing the responses.

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 4.6 Reasons for Non-probability Sampling:

● In research with non-probability sample is not a product of a

randomized selection processes. Subjects in a non-probability sample

are usually selected on the basis of their accessibility or by the

purposive personal judgment of the researcher. So as this research topic

is very much connected with the Universe, this technique was used.

● Again, in the forms of Non-Probability sampling, the sampling

technique used was Convenience sampling. It is probably the most

common of all sampling techniques. With convenience sampling, the

samples are selected because they are accessible to the researcher.

Subjects are chosen simply because they are easy to recruit. This

technique is considered easiest, cheapest and least time consuming.

● Basically, to put it in a simple sense, this Non-Probability Sampling

was used when randomization is impossible like when the population

is almost limitless.

● This sample technique allows the researcher to choose the sample based

on their availability. Thus, it becomes easier and also brings out the vast

sample. Using non-probability sample looked best for this research as

the topic Sport Biopics in Hindi Cinema is now a trending topic which

is well appreciated by every individual.

● Only restriction though was that an individual must have watched a

Sport Biopics in Hindi Cinema. Apart from this the research sample

was properly distributed among the Universe itself.

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 4.7 Quantitative Research

Quantitative research, is defined as the systematic investigation of phenomena

by gathering quantifiable data and performing statistical, mathematical or

computational techniques. Quantitative research gathers information from

existing and potential customers using sampling methods and sending out

online surveys, online polls, questionnaires etc., the results of which can be

depicted in the form of numerical. After careful understanding of these

numbers to predict the future of a product or service and make changes

accordingly or the behaviour of the consumers on particular products or

services.

The quantitative methods have a number of attributes, such as: they collect

measurable data to reach comparable and useful results, assume alternative

plans for achieving objectives, plan data, concerning observations collection,

configuration and elaboration by statistical and econometric stochastic

methods, check data reliability, choose appropriate sampling method, use

carefully the estimates.

To study this research topic, quantitative method of analysis is used as to match

with the objectives of this research study. There are again multiple methods of

collecting the quantitative research data. Off the available research techniques,

the option chosen for this topic was a Survey Based Research.

Sample size for this research has been decided to be 100 respondents. All those

who have watch Hindi Cinema and particularly watched Sports Biopics and

their views on the topic.

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 4.8 Nature of Respondents

● Every respondent must have watched Sports Biopics, should have

watched Biopics on sport personality or have the knowledge of Hindi

cinema and there concentration and focus completely on the Biopics.

Respondent also must be having the digital subscriptions as the new

trend of 20th century of watching movies is mostly watched in the Over

the top applications in Digital Media.

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 4.9 Purpose of Questionnaire

● The main purpose of the questionnaire is to study the perception of the

viewers of Hindi cinema and who watched Biopics made on sport

personalities and the impact they have on their life’s and also impacting

the Hindi Cinema.

● Considering the demographics as the mandatory questions in the

questionnaire, this questionnaire to be circulated for the

answers/responses has got totally 23 questions. These questions are

framed in sequential order with a motive to collect the information from

the respondents with no dichotomy and for pure & accurate results.

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 4.10 Limitations and Delimitations

➢ This research is conducted using the online media as the tool of data

processing and that’s not going to help this research and cannot be treated

as overall study. It is limited to geographical area of Hyderabad and

Secunderabad in the state of Telangana. Since there is no particular time

period for the study, this study cannot be used as means for analysis after

few months’ time. Whereas it can only be taken reference for similar

studies to be taken up in future. This research is again limited to only young

people most of them falling under age bracket of 18-35.

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 4.11 Utility of Research

This research even with few limitations helps the academicians and students,

content generators and brands to relook at the Hindi Cinema and particularly

Biopics on sport personality and its impact and the how the audience is tempted

to watch the biopics. Might not be a nation-wide research, but it talks about the

opinion of one particular set of people from Hyderabad and Secunderabad. If

taken as reference this research will help the students to build bigger study and

learn about the Sport Biopics and its impact on Hindi Cinema.

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 5. Review of Literature

Cinema as an artistic endeavour and an indispensable medium of the masses

encompasses a wide range of human experiences and it has the power to reflect

the growth and progress of an entire community, society, or a country. Since

1890, when Lumiere brothers displayed their invention by filming the daily

lives and environments of common people and demonstrated the film’s

capacity to document the world around, films have become a popular way to

narrate stories both real and fictitious. However, real life narratives have

always enjoyed a specific authority among the audience because these films

provide them with a sense of witnessing something which actually occurred.

The Birth of a Nation (1915) by D.W. Griffith has been highly successful in

reconstructing significant historical events and till today it is being considered

exemplary in imparting a narrative form to the film. In India, the silent

mythological film Raja Harishchandra (1913) by Dadasaheb Phalke based on

the legend of Raja Harishchandra, not only marked a historic benchmark in the

film industry in India but has also proven to be a commercial success paving

the way for more such films.

According to Andrew Hoskins (2002), “the societies turn on their past in an

attempt to alter their own and others’ perception of the collective in the present,

they also turn to the past, in an attempt to find some kind of anchor in the

characteristically fragmented experience of modern life. Different ways are

explored by historical commentators in a move to share the experience of a

collective past”. Jacques Le Goff (1992) argues that “the pursuit, rescue, and

celebration of collective memory, no longer in single events but over a long

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period, this quest for collective memory less in texts than in the spoken word,

images, gestures, rituals, and festivals, constitutes a major change in historical

vision. It amounts to a conversion shared by the public at large, which is

obsessed by the fear of losing its memory in a kind of collective amnesia—a

fear which is awkwardly expressed in the taste for the fashions of earlier times,

and shamelessly exploited by nostalgia-merchants; memory has thus become a

best-seller in a consumer society”. This explains how historical films soon

emerged as a popular genre of films. Biographical films or biopics hold a

significant position among the various authentic historical discourses projected

on the screen. Minieret.al (2016) mention that, George F. Custen argues in his

1992 monograph, that lays down the groundwork for the study of the topic, that

the form matured by the 1930’s when the proliferation of biographical films

with distinct generic characteristics appeared in Hollywood. It is with this kind

of film that Custen associated the term ‘biopic’, a colloquial contraction of

‘biographical motion picture’.

According to Christie, the biopic is “certainly the most familiar and most

significant form of biographical narrative to emerge from modernity that has

only recently begun to receive intense and systematic study”. The genre of the

biopic is defined as encompassing films that “depict the life of a historical

person, past or present” and in which the central character’s “real name is

used”. It is a genre whose traits “shift new with each generation”. According

to Bingham (2010), “the biopic is a genuine, dynamic and an important genre

that narrates, exhibits and celebrates the life of a subject in order to

demonstrate, investigate, or question his or her importance in the world”. A

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biopic has to deal with fact and fiction in a very balanced manner and its

similarity to other genres cannot be discounted.

Genres are dependent upon audiences for both their existence and meaning.

The idea of genre circulated in public thinking well before the first scholarly

writing on film genre appeared. Almost from the beginning, movies have been

promoted in the media primarily through their generic affiliations. They signal

to prospective viewers the type of story as well as the kind of pleasure they are

likely to offer and assist them in making a choice. (Grant, 2007). Conventional

definitions of genres tend to be based on the notion that they constitute

particular conventions of content (such as themes or settings) and/or form

(including structure and style) which are shared by the texts regarded as

belonging to them (Chandler, 1997). “The genre demarcation is always

historical. That is to say, it is correct only for a specific moment of history”.

Some genres are defined only retrospectively, being unrecognized as such by

the original producers and audiences. Genres need to be studied as historical

phenomena; a popular focus in film studies, for instance, has been the evolution

of conventions within a genre. Current genres go through phases or cycles of

popularity (such as the cycle of disaster films in the 1970s), sometimes

becoming dormant for a period rather than disappearing. On-going genres and

their conventions themselves change over time. Reviewing 'evolutionary

change' in some popular film genres, Andrew Tudor concludes that it has three

main characteristics: innovations are added to an existent corpus rather than

replacing redundant elements, it is cumulative; these innovations must be

basically consistent with what is already present, it is 'conservative' and these

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processes lead to the crystallization of specialist sub-genres, it involves

differentiation.

Undoubtedly biography has always been practiced in the history of cinema. Ian

Christie, in his article A life on film, illustrates that the biographical film is

essentially as old as cinema itself, both within and beyond the Anglo-American

context. He demonstrates that early silent film footage, such as the chance

recording of the assassination of the President William Mckinley (1901), and

the capturing of the suffragist Emily Davison’s death (1913), paved the way

for the emergence of the biographical film. The form started to develop in the

early 1990’s with, for instance, the 1912 Russian production, The Departure of

a Great Old Man (portraying Tolstoy in his final days), Oskar Messter’s 1913

Richard Wagner as well as The Life of David Lloyd George from 1918, which

“would have been the first biographical film of a serving national leader” had

it not been withdrawn right before its scheduled premiere (as cited in Mimier

2016.

Film studies has not recognized the biopic as a genre with its own conventions

and stages of development. Furthermore, in the Hollywood studio era,

biographies were staples of several of the major studios especially Warner

Bros., Twentieth Century Fox, and MGM (Bingham, 2010). However, like any

genre that dates back nearly to the beginnings of narrative cinema, the biopic

can be said to have gone through the following developmental stages as given

by Dennis Bingham in his work Whose Lives Are, They Anyway: The Biopic

as Contemporary Film Genre (2010): the classical, celebratory form

(melodrama), warts-and-all (melodrama/realism), the transition of a producer’s

genre to an auteurist director’s. (Martin Scorsese, Spike Lee, Oliver Stone,

30 | P a g e
etc.), critical investigation and atomization of the subject (or the Citizen Kane

mode), parody (in terms of choice of subject- a movie about somebody who

does not deserve one), minority appropriation (as in queer or feminist, African

American or third world), and since 2000 the neo-classical biopic which

integrates elements of all or most of these.

As mentioned by Bingham (2010), applying genre development model of Henri

Focillon (life-cycle model) and Christian Metz (evolutionary model), it can be

seen that the genre seems to have been through the stages and cycles more than

once. The biopic went into eclipse as a consistently produced popular genre in

the 1960s. The 1970s, an exciting phase for American cinema, was the low ebb

of the biopic. The biopics did not receive a full. The life-cycle theory of genres

put forward by Henri Focillon in the life of forms in art (1942). The stages are

experimental to classic to refinement to baroque (self-reflexive). 2 The concept

of evolution from classicism to parody to contestation and critique, proposed

by Christian Metz in Language and Cinema. (1974) revival until the 1980s, the

reasons being the rise of the auteur and the film school generation and the shift

of the biopics from the producer’s genre to the director’s medium. There is,

moreover, a glaring disconnects, especially since 1980, between the genre’s

withering critical and academic reception and its enduring success with voters

of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and other award- giving

bodies. Evidence abounds that biography has been a more prestigious genre

since 1980 than it was in the studio period. In 1980 alone, out of five

nominations for Best Picture, three were biographies: Coal Miner’s Daughter,

The Elephant Man and Raging Bull. Twenty-eight biopics were produced from

1981 to 2008 and seven won: Gandhi (1982), Amadeus (1984), Out of Africa

31 | P a g e
(1985), The Last Emperor (1987), Schindler’s List (1993), Braveheart (1995)

and A Beautiful Mind (2001) and the trend still continues.

Rachel Dwyer (2012) in her work traces the growth of the genre in the Indian

context and mentions that the biopic genre has been relatively unproductive in

India despite the massive international critical and commercial success of the

1982 Indo-British biopic Gandhi by Richard Attenborough. In India, biopic has

been a rarely used term and is not widely known, and it is usually being classed

as “Historical”. They depict a nation in crisis, so the films are about the nation

itself focusing on characters whose lives are told as narratives of struggle,

sacrifice, and patriotism. There is also an overlap with other genres that have a

quasihistorical nature including the mythological and devotional films.

Rachel Dwyer (2012) observes that, since biopic is a hybrid genre, “the

biography does have some problems with fitting in the Hindi film form, which

must have a hero, melodrama, spectacle, music, and also a star. The director of

Paan Singh Tomar (2010) Tigmanshu Dhulia points out, that the audiences

would classify a biopic without stars among documentaries; and a certain

resistance to the documentary in India can be seen as this form has never been

commercially successful”.

The formation of the genre of the biopic in Hindi in the twentieth century, may

be traced by mentioning a few key examples with the most celebrated being

Dr. Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani (1946), based on K.A. Abbas’s biography of a

doctor. Many major filmmakers made several autobiographical films which

drew on a tradition of autobiography that began in the

32 | P a g e
nineteenth century and was developed by major political figures such as

Gandhi and Nehru. The semi-autobiographical film included Guru Dutt’s

Pyaasa (1957), often seen as blending elements of Guru Dutt’s own life with

the biography of the lyricist Sahir Ludhiyanvi. There is a cluster that may be

classed as a sub-genre of the biopic, namely one that is formed by the biopics

of the leaders of the freedom struggle (1857-1947), although these films are

found almost exclusively in the realist Indian Cinema, most of them being

made after Attenborough’s Gandhi. The leading figure of realist Hindi cinema

Shyam Benegal has also made a number of biopics and quasi-biopics, mostly

drawing on autobiographies, biographies and semi- autobiographical scripts.

One of them Bhumika (1977), deals with a Marathi actress of the 1930s, Hansa

Wadkar, another Zubeidaa (2001) deals with a movie actress, Zubeidaa Begum.

These films stand side by side with films on the nationalist leaders Gandhi, The

Making of Mahatma (1996) and Bose, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose: The

Forgotten Hero (2005). Another film Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! (2008) by

Dibakar Banerjee became something of a cult classic because of its unusual

style and story-telling.

In the Indian context, the biographical film genre can be seen to encompass

films about musicians, artists, scientists, political figures, writers, sports

heroes, etc. Further, the genre also encompasses films that take extremely

different approaches to dramatizing lives; some biopics attempt to give a

comprehensive view of the subject’s entire life, while others might dramatize

only one significant period in the depicted person’s life. Indian Cinema or

specifically popular Hindi Bollywood Cinema bears testimony to such

examples.

33 | P a g e
There is a recent surge in biopics due to shifts in Indian cinema, as audiences

have changed in response to transformations in Indian society in the last two

decades. Bollywood’s incessant fascination with the biopic has grown stronger

and become more evident. The success of biographical films like Jodha Akbar

(the love saga of the greatest Mughal King Akbar and his Rajput wife Jodha),

The Dirty Picture (a narrative on the life of the actress Silk Smitha), Rang

Rasiya (based on the colourful life of 19thcentury renowned painter Raja Ravi

Varma), Mary Kom (inspired by boxer Mary Kom’s journey), Main Aur

Charles, Bajirao Mastani, Neerja, Aligarh, Azhar, etc. seems to have truly

reinforced the industry’s faith and put Bollywood on a biopic spree. With the

Indian films becoming transnational and the producers having an eye on the

overseas market, biopics have become a major attraction, with the

unprecedented success of Paan Singh Tomar (2010) and Bhaag Milkha Bhaag

(2013). Biopics, especially sports biopics, have become immensely popular.

Sports personalities have become a huge source of inspiration for filmmaker’s

keen to make films based on them. Apart from this, there is a sudden surge of

biopics about common people in Bollywood. These films are quite different

from the usual biopics as the focus has shifted from only celebrating the life

stories of the famous. These biopics create drama out of the stories of ordinary

people who face extraordinary circumstances and still emerge as successful in

their endeavours. Films like Manjhi. Manjunath, Sarabjit, etc. are quite

successful examples of such biopics. Reality (in terms of biopics) as a formula

is gaining prominence in Bollywood, with even fictional scripts creating thrust

on authentic characters and situations.

34 | P a g e
Every biopic is supposed to have a basis in reality but biopic is by no means a

simple recounting of the facts of someone’s life, it operates at the border

between fact and fiction. Robert Rosenstone (2012) points out that in a visual

medium, history “must be fictional in order to be true”. Catherine Parke (1996),

argues that historically a “tug of war” has 8 taken place among fiction,

biography, and history, “with biography in the middle”.

Whereas, biopics have a significant contribution in reconstruction of history,

historical films, notes Sumita Chakravarthy (1993), writing about the Bombay

Cinema, “have played an important role in the formation of national identity

and therefore it can be said that biographical approaches contribute in valuable

ways to identity research by exploring the links between narrative and life”.

Despite the genre’s newfound success, there is a dearth of academic research

on Indian biopics. According to Rachel Dwyer (2012), “no study has been

made of the early biopics and the extent to which they are true biopics is also

not entirely clear. While the films do portray life stories, the leading character

is often presented not as iconic, but only as a stock melodramatic figure; that

represents purity and honour, and there are no critical assessments or

controversial issues around it”.

Apart from various other significant features of biographical narratives, what

makes biopic an interesting area of study is the difference in its narratology as

compared to other genres. The majority of genres are bound to specific

narrative conditions and these are formed by earlier films within the same

genre. If they are violated, the film shifts its generic register or establishes a

connection with another genre. Dorrit Cohen (2008), among others, has

demonstrated that established narrative categories and conventions such as

35 | P a g e
story/discourse, voice focalization, etc. do not apply to non-fiction in the same

way as to fiction, and as biopics are an amalgamation of fact and fiction, they

very uniquely assimilate narrative strategies and offer a rich area of inquiry.

Henry M. Taylor (2011), who has made a comprehensive study of narration in

biographical films, notes, a biopic has three narratological challenges. Firstly,

it usually has to tell a life story in approximately two hours. Secondly, a life,

in its entirety, is seldom very dramatic. Thirdly, the life of a protagonist has to

be (audio) visualised, even if the protagonist is a writer whose daily work does

not seem and sound spectacular. Furthermore, a biopic builds a fictional

character out of a public figure through narrative and cinematic means (as cited

in Lehtisalo A., 2011).

The distinctive features of biopic coupled with the genre hybridity, provide an

intriguing area of research specifically in the Indian context, where the lack of

such research is evident.

36 | P a g e
 6. Hypothesis

Ordinarily, when one talks about hypothesis, one simply means a mere

assumption or some supposition to be proved or disproved. But for a researcher

hypothesis is a formal question that he intends to resolve. Thus, a hypothesis

may be defined as a proposition or a set of propositions set forth as an

explanation for the occurrence of some specified group of phenomena either

asserted merely to guide some investigation or accepted as highly probable in

the light of established facts. It needs a research or survey to be conducted so

that the facts can be established and statements can be proven.

1. Hindi Cinema has the direct impact on the personality of Audience with

the Sports Biopics.

2. Sports Biopics have been accepted very well by the movie goers.

3. Sports Biopics have become new trend in the market and are earning

really good money at box office.

4. People get influenced when they watch Sports Biopics made in Hindi

Cinema.

The above four hypothesis statements will be studied during this research.

37 | P a g e
 7. Data Presentation, Analysis & Data

Interpretation

1. The Research was conducted with a motive to derive responses from

minimum 100 respondents. After a weeklong survey the number of

respondents collected were 115. Each respondent has shared their

opinion on the study and impact of Sport biopics in Hindi Cinema.

38 | P a g e
2. Off the Universe, after choosing non-probability sample technique,

responses gathered were 115. Off the 115 respondents the ratio of Male

and Female stands at 7:3. Overall there have been 35 female

respondents and 79 male respondents with Male at 68.4% and female

at 30.7%. At 70% male respondents in this research study it does bring

a little conclusion that male population is still the major gender in sports

as an interest.

39 | P a g e
3. Off the Universe, the respondents have been chosen only in two age

brackets. Simply put the maximum age of a respondent is 34 and the

youngest respondent is 18 years. In the 100 respondents there are 38.3%

of respondents falling under age bracket of 18-22 and 48.7% falling in

the age bracket of 23-27 and 13% in the age bracket for 28 and above.

Research concentrates more on Youth.

40 | P a g e
4. In this research project there are people from different occupations

whereas few of them are in to commerce field, few in journalism,

engineering, students and employees of various different organisations

have participated in the Sport Biopics survey. Most of them falling

under the age bracket of 18-24 coming from two backgrounds. Most of

them are either from the Student background or from the employers.

41 | P a g e
5. Most of the respondents are Graduated and Post Graduated. Most of the

people are from the stream of Finance, Engineering, B. Tech, MBBS.

As told in the previous question, there are most of the students from the

education background. Off those the student’s respondents’ numbers

was around 60-70.

42 | P a g e
6. As told in the limitations of the Study, this research was majorly

concentrated in the city of Hyderabad. Only handful of respondents fall

outside Hyderabad or Telangana. I believe that those who have written

different other localities also fall under Hyderabad. 63% of respondents

are from Hyderabad and very few are from the cities like Bangalore and

Chennai.

43 | P a g e
7. Interestingly 72.6% have subscriptions Amazon Prime, 38.9% have

Hotstar and 47% of them are subscribed to Netflix, 8% of them are

subscribed to ZEE5 and 5.3% have subscribed to Alt Balaji and 1% of

them are with DTH Subscriptions and 4% of them don’t have any

subscription. This proves that the promotion and the content by

Amazon prime have made consumers to subscribe. Amazon prime is

then followed by the NetFlix which is picking up really high in terms

of subscriptions thanks to their continous content development and

more importantly the content of India.

44 | P a g e
8. Of course it’s a question that needs no explanation. Off all the

respondents it was seen that 53% of respondents do watch movie based

watching, 33% of respondents do watch movie every week, 7.8% do

watch movie every day, 7% of respondents watch movie every month.

This 53% of people who watch the Movies based on every new releases

are very crticial ones and they are the one’s who decide the word of

mouth for a movie. So there responses carry weight are needed to be

considered with bit more interest.

45 | P a g e
9. Here we see that 26.1% Respondents prefer to watch Action movies,

21.7% respondents prefer to watch Biopics, 10.4% respondents prefer

to watch Horror, 17.4% likes to watch comedy and rest 25% do watch

other genre’s of movies and few prefer to watch all the genre’s of

movie. Biopics which have gained importance or acceptance very

recently and to see them at 21.7% about 5% from the 1st position is not

at all bad thing to look at. Third place is taken by Romantic movies

which looks to be the loser and the gainer is the Biopics movies.

46 | P a g e
10. Different respondents have different opinions for not liking the genre

to be liked there are 18.3% people who don’t like watching Horror

Movies, 25.2% doesn’t like to watch Drama,7% doesn’t like to watch

biopics, 14.8% doesn’t like to watch biopics, 7% doesn’t like to watch

family movies and other 13.9% doesn’t like watching the genre’s apart

from given options. Interesting point here to watch out is that the newer

generation isn’t ready to watch any kind of ‘Drama’ movies. They

would also hate if its Romantic. Good amount of people has also voted

for Horror, but the big take away is that the ‘Drama’ movies are losing

the ground in the battle of genres.

47 | P a g e
11. Elements which people prefer are important for a good movie are

80.9% says is plot/storyline. 47.8% people feel effects and

cinematography is important, 26.1% people feel cast is important,

15.7% feel Genre is important and 9.6% says other elements are

important. It is now getting clearly obvious that 80.9% people would

want only the story/content to be the biggest reason for a good movie.

They aren’t really bothered about the cast. Cast remains shockingly to

be third most favoured element. It is the content and not the actors,

genre or any other thing. In the world of media is ‘Content is King’.

48 | P a g e
12. For this question 59.1% of respondents prefers to watch Sports related

and Athletics related movies, 4.3% of repondents prefers to watch

movies related to politics, 6.1% of people prefers to watch movie

related to movie actors and 30% of people prefer anyother famous

personality.

49 | P a g e
13. This question was asked to know why do respondents like the preferred

Sub-genre in the list of biopics because they motivate, inspire and they

also say that they come to know about there life style and the difficulties

they have faced the complete background story of a personality movie

is based upon, people have also mentioned that it inspires them to face

and overcome the challenges they have faced. The people who have

mentioned other sub-genre they mentioned that either of concentrating

on sports and movie stars there are other fields which are untouched or

discovered where we can find thousands of inspiring and motivating

lives.

50 | P a g e
14. This question was asked to understand the parameter of sports biopics

in Hindi cinema so the rating is taken from 5 to 1.

➢ The first parameter is Movies motivate an individual in this the rating

maximum number of respondents rated it four as they think that it

mostly motivates and individual. 60% have said that it very much

motivates the individual and others on the average of 3 says it

motivates people.

➢ The second parameter is about how influential are the movies many

respondents have said that mostly it does influential and the next high

rated is 5 where they say it very much influences and lastly the average

number of people says it very less influences people.

➢ The Third parameter is about how movies are making people confident

in this we can see that there is a an average answer where we can see

the most of the people say that the viewers of movie are confident while

watching the movie, the people who rated 5 says that it very much does

51 | P a g e
 make people confident on this and few rated on average of 3 who says

that it may or may not make people confident.

➢ The fourth parameter is about movies can inspire people the rating of

5 is very high as the maximum respondents feel that movies does

inspire people very much, the second highest rating is on 3 who says it

may or it may not and the last is rating 4 where they say mostly, they

do inspire the viewers.

➢ The fifth Parameter is about the sorts movies which are entertaining or

fun the rating of 4 is very high as we see that viewers say mostly its

fun and entertaining, the next highest rating is on 5 where the

respondents say it sport movies are entertaining and also fun and the

third highest parameter is average where it says it may or it may not

and last is the people who say it is not at all entertaining.

52 | P a g e
15. Here 47% of respondents say that they can’t say whether the making of

sport biopics is easy or tough and 34.8% respondents says its not at all

difficult to make a sport biopic and 18.3% of people say it is difficult

to come up with sport biopics. 47% people think that the answer for this

question is not easy. This responses from the people is something to

expected as we know that movie goers don’t understand the insider

things about movie and they are just watching movies as source of

entertainment.

53 | P a g e
16. The 81.7% of respondents have said that the biopics are made mixed of

both factual and fictional and 13% of respondents says its factual and

other 5.2% of respondents says its fictional. It is a very important to be

asked and people have responded saying that the Hindi Cinema stories

on Sports Biopics are very much mixed of fictional and facts. Not

calling for ultimate reality about the players in the movie but this is

what the people watching the movies got to say.

54 | P a g e
17. About 48.7% of people says that their opinion is neutral on this as they

say it can be promotional and it can be also not. 25.2% of people agrees

that the sport biopics are promotional stunt. 17.4% disagrees that the

sport biopics are promotional stunt, 5.2% of people strongly agrees that

the sport biopics are promotional stunt and 3.5% strongly disagrees

with the statement.

55 | P a g e
18. Many Respondents have said M S Dhoni is the movie which has

inspired them the most and Bhaag Milkha Bhaag is the second biopic

praised by the respondents and rest all has responded with Mary Kom,

Pan Singh Tomar, Dangal and Chak De India. The people who haven’t

got inspired with anything has responded with nothing as per now.

56 | P a g e
19. The sports Biopics attracting only sports fan and the general audience

the analysis states that 42.6% of respondents clearly disagree that

biopics do attract general audience as well, 23.5% of respondents have

given a neutral answer where they say it attracts general audience as

well as the sport fans, 17.4% of people have strongly disagreed with the

statement, 10.4% of people have agreed that it attracts the sport fans

more than the general audience and 6.1% have strongly agreed that it

attracts the sport fans more than a general audience.

57 | P a g e
20. The role of sports personality the 61.7% of respondents have said it

doesn’t make any difference whether he is a well-established actor or

new comer, 23.5% preferred to watch the role of sport personality if the

actor is well established and 14.8% have said the actor should be new

comer. Preferably so, as seen in the previous question, the respondents

don’t really bother who should be the actor for the movie. But they are

majorly concerned about the content and that’s when they say that it

doesn’t make any difference who the actor is for the movie.

58 | P a g e
21. Sport Biopics are major trend in Hindi cinema the 48.7% of respondents

have agreed stating that it is the trend in Hindi cinema, 24.3% people

have answered neutral, 17.4% of people have strongly agreed stating

that it has become the major trend in Hindi cinema and 9.6% of

respondents Disagreed with the statement that the sport biopics. Almost

majority of the respondents agree that the sports biopics have become

a trend in the market and adding to that with 17.4% strongly agreeing

to the statement, it can be accepted with proof that yes, the sports

biopics have become a trend in the Indian movie market.

59 | P a g e
22. Sport Biopics earning more profit is agreed by 35.7% of respondents

and other 35.7% of respondents are neutral, 17.4% of respondent

disagree with the statement that sports biopics earn more profits than

other genre movies and 8.7% of respondents have strongly agreed for

the same and 2.6% of respondents have strongly disagreed they think

that both genre of movies earn equal profits. This question as we see

from the percentages reveal that Sports Biopics do make more profits.

Though the strongly agreed people stand at just 8% the other two levels

responses combined recorded at 70.4 % proves that Sports Biopics can

make good money.

60 | P a g e
23. In the study, 45.2% of respondents have always wanted to become the

personality shown in the movie, 31.3% of respondents sometimes felt

to become the personality shown in the movie and 23.5% have never

felt like becoming the personality shown in the movie. There is feeling

for every one of us -up when we watch an actor in a movie where we

think of becoming like him/her etc, the same question when asked her

has given 45% people wanting to become like the actor after watching

the movie. This is an interesting fact to look at and just 23% straight

ignore but 30% and above are also saying they Maybe want to become

the actor after watching the movie.

61 | P a g e
24. Sport Biopics are mostly changing the mindset of parents as 53% of

respondents have agreed to it, 33.9% of respondents have said that the

mindset of parents is changed and 13% of respondents have said that

the mindset of parents has not changed. It shows that the movies are

really helping to change the mindsets of the movie goers, especially

parents who are willing to send their kids for playing games. This is a

really good change to see in the modern era.

62 | P a g e
25. For the promotion of sport biopics the 58.3% of respondents have said

it is moderate means average to promote biopics, 20% of respondents

have said it is hard to promote biopics in Indian Cinema,11.3% of

respondents have said it is easy to promote sports biopics in Indian

cinema, 7% have said it is very hard to promote Sport Biopics and 3.5%

have said it is very easy.

63 | P a g e
26. Sports Biopics has influenced people to take up sports and fitness

programs as 57.4% have said probably agreed, 24.3% of respondents

have said that sport biopics influences people to join fitness

programs,16.5% have said it may influence, 0.9% said most improbably

which means it doesn’t influence and other 0.9% said improbably.

64 | P a g e
27. This is the fascinating fact about this entire study. 93% of respondents

said that they dint hate the person after watching that personality in

movie and 7% of respondents hated the personality after seeing him/her

in movie.

65 | P a g e
28. Yet another question and same response given by the respondents. 93%

of respondents says that they never got demotivated or low confidence

after watching sport biopics where as other 7% said they felt

demotivated and less confident after watching sport biopics.

66 | P a g e
29. The role of sport biopics in India’s future cinema is always going to be

motivating, spreading positivity and it is also going to give people more

idea and also going to inspire with sports personality life story, it will

also play a major role in changing the mindset of parents and biopics

will also increase the participation and encouragement will have a

greater number of sportspersons.

67 | P a g e
30. In this final question, respondents were asked to rate the list of the movies.

It was seen that most of the respondents have rated the movie Dangal as the

best movie and then followed by Lagaan, then followed by MSD, and then

followed by Bhaag Milkha Bhaag as the best movie. The most dis liked movie

out of all the movies was Paan Singh Tomar. Shows that people have really

liked the concept of Sports Biopics in India and have given huge acceptance to

the Dangal and Lagaan movie.

68 | P a g e
 8. Conclusion

This research study was an exciting journey for me while doing the research.

Since the time I started writing objectives for this research study and till the

time it got completed with more than 115 respondents it was a great learning

experience for me. This research study which was on the impact of sports

biopics in India has been very much encouraged by the audience and they have

given their thing and it was a challenging study to work on.

During my research study I have found out some very

interesting outcomes. It was in the data analysis of the research found out that

the majority of the respondents which is more than the 50% of audience prefer

to have better content than anything else for them to watch a movie. They say

that for them content is the biggest asset for any movie and the actors don’t

really bother them whether he/she is a big or small or debutant actor.

With the rise in the popularity of sport, we have also seen an increase in the

demand to host major sporting events, a phenomenon like hosting U17 FIFA

World Cup was a big feat for India. Countries of all economic, political and

societal development levels are bidding to bring the world of sport to their lanes

and paint their roads with colors and experience the many benefits of hosting a

major games, such as increased levels of participation in sport, increased

tourism, opportunities for cultural and public diplomacy as well as increased

investment, which often benefits elite and grass-roots sport through the

building of new stadiums and state of the art sports facilities in the developing

nation like India. This is all very important for a nation to develop and grow.

69 | P a g e
 Sports movies, whether documentaries, true story movies or even just a

regular fictional movie, has inspired young athletes to greatness. They inspire

kids to dream, to want the cheers, to overcome the hardships, and they teach

them the meaning of hard work. That’s when asked the respondents over 93%

of people have agreed that they like the Players and they are influenced by their

behaviour or their charisma. Sports has continuously been growing in India and

Indians really want to see many more events happening in the country. India is

a place of Gold, a Gold miner where any one with great ideas and a smart idea

can come up and rule the business. That’s where the Bollywood has hit in the

recent days and they are now able to see the leaps and bounds growth of sports

movies and their performance on the box office. If we move out of sports

biopics and look at the performance of recently released URI – The Surgical

Strikes movie, which is a real event story, made at budget of meagre 25 crores

has already made close to 200 cr. Tells us again that People of India have

moved on from just the romantic, DDLJ, Hum Aapke hai Koun, Dabbang,

SRK’s Romance, Hrithik Dance Steps, Amitabh Bachchan’s anger and comedy

to serious content which has some real message in it.

This news to me as an Indian is amazing to discover and really wish

that the Indian movie industry keeps on making movies which are related to

Sports and bring out the inspirational stories of Great athletes or any other

players. Because what India needs the most is the Motivation and Inspirational

energy which will take India to new heights and bring the glory that India is

awaiting since long time. I end it here with optimism that India will grow

rapidly on the back of Movies and Motivation derived from them!

#JaiHo #JaiHind

70 | P a g e
 9. Bibliography & References

• Abhijit Bora & Perosh Jimmy Daimari, School of Humanities and Social
Sciences -
https://www.iiste.org/Journals/index.php/NMMC/article/viewFile/311
6/3157

• Sean Crosson – National University of Ireland

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320253201_Promoting_patri
otism_through_mediated_sports_Political_economy_of_Bollywood_s
ports_movies

• Cheshire, Ellen. (2014). Bio-pics: a Life in Pictures.

• Different Authors -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Indian_sports_films

• https://www.sportskeeda.com/sports/10-greatest-sports-films-made-

in-india

• Altman, Rick. (1999). Film/Genres. British Film Institute

• K. Raghav Prasad & Dr. Satyanarayana, Assistant Professors, Kautilya First

Grade College, Mysuru - https://www.onlinejournal.in/IJIRV3I4/107.pdf

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 10. Appendix

Details of Respondent:

1. Name:
2. Gender:
3. Age:
4. Profession:
5. Education:
6. City:
7. Digital Subscriptions:

Questions on the Topic:

1. How often do you watch movies?

a. Every day
b. Every week
c. Every month
d. Movie based watching

2. Which Movie Genre do you prefer or like to watch?

a. Romantic
b. Action
c. Family Drama
d. Horror
e. Biopics
f. Others______________

3. Which Movie Genre you “don’t” like watching?

g. Romantic
h. Action
i. Family Drama
j. Horror
k. Biopics
l. Others______________

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 4. Which of the following elements are important for a good movie?
a. Plot/Storyline
b. Effects/Cinematography
c. Cast
d. Genre
e. Others____________

5. Given a choice in Biopics, which type of Biopics would you prefer to

watch?
a. Sports or Athletics
b. Politicians
c. Movie Stars
d. Any other famous personality

6. Why do you prefer watching the above selected sub-genre in list of

Biopics?
Ans…………………………………………………………………

7. What is your rating for each of the parameter for a Sports Biopics in
Hindi Cinema from your experience of watching the Sports Biopics?

(Check in the box that best describes your answer) I have some doubts
about how this question has been framed.

Statements to be rated 5-Very 4 3 2 1–Not at All

Much
Sports Movies motivate an Individual
Sports Movies are Highly Influential
Sports Movies are making people Confident
Sports Movies can Inspire any individual
Sports movies are more entertaining and fun

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8. Do you think it’s really easy to come up with a Sports Biopic in Hindi
cinema?
a. Yes
b. No
c. Can’t Say

9. Do you think that Sports Biopics made in Hindi Cinema are fictional or
Factual?
a. Fictional
b. Factual
c. Mixed of Both

10. Do you think that sports biopics are made as a person’s promotional
stunt?
a. Strongly Agree
b. Agree
c. Neutral
d. Disagree
e. Strongly Disagree

11. Which Hindi Sports biopic had inspired you the most?
____________________________________________________

12. Do you think that Sport Biopics attract only sport fans the and not the
general audience?
a. Strongly agree
b. Agree
c. Neutral
d. Disagree
e. Strongly disagree

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13. Whom would you prefer playing the role of a “Sports Personality”?
a. Well established actor
b. New comer
c. Doesn’t make a difference

14. Do you think that that Sports Biopics have become a major trend in
Hindi Cinema?
a. Strongly Agree
b. Agree
c. Neutral
d. Disagree
e. Strongly Disagree

15. Do you think Sports Biopics earn more profits than movies of other
genres?
a. Strongly agree
b. Agree
c. Neutral
d. Disagree
e. Strongly Disagree

16. Did you ever feel that you would want to become the personality as
shown in the movie?

17. Do you think Sports Biopics are changing the mindset of parents?
a. Yes
b. No
c. Can’t Say

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18. How hard is it to promote the Sports Biopics in India cinema?
a. Very hard
b. Hard
c. Moderate
d. Easy
e. Very Easy

19. Do you think that Sports Biopics can influence people to take up sports
and fitness programs?
a. Most Probably
b. Probably
c. Maybe
d. Improbably
e. Most improbably

20. After watching a Sports Biopic, did you hate the person that you had
liked before?
a. Yes
b. No

21. Did you ever get demotivated or low on confidence after watching any
Sports Biopic?
a. Yes
b. No

22. What do you think is the role of Sports Biopic in India’s Future of
Cinema? (write two sentences)
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________

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23. Rank the list of movies based on your experience of watching them
(Leave the rating box blank for that Movie which you have not watched)
Movie Name Rating 5 Rating 4 Rating 3 Rating 2 Rating 1
Bhaag Milkha Bhaag
Chak de India
Dangal
MS Dhoni – The
Untold Story
Mary Kom
Azhar
Gold
Soorma
Sachin – A Billion
Dreams
Lagaan
Pan Singh Tomar

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