When films took inspiration from life

Bollywood doesn't make too many biopics, but all that seems to be changing as our filmmakers look to real-life achievers for inspiration.

Several Bollywood biopics are slated to go into production or hit the screen soon.

Last Friday, we had Once Upon A Time in Mumbaai, which explored the rise of organised crime in 1970s Mumbai. It isn't an official biopic, yet the film is reported to be a take on the lives of Haji Mastan and Dawood Ibrahim, with Ajay Devgn and Emraan Hashmi in the respective roles.

The story of Haji Mastan has provided inspiration to Bollywood in the past as well, most notably for Yash Chopra's Deewar.

We take a look at some of the prominent upcoming biopics:

Said by many to be the film that would catapult Ram Gopal Varma back to the big league of Bollywood filmmakers, Rakta Charitra is an ambitious biopic of slain political leader Paritala Ravi.

Vivek Oberoi stars in the lead, with Surya, Priyamani and Shatrughan Sinha all featuring in critical roles.

Filmed in Telugu, Hindi and Tamil, Rakta Charitra hits theatres in September.

Tigmanshu Dhulia's highly awaited August release tells the story of a steeplechase runner who came out of nowhere to conquer the event at the Indian National Games seven years in a row.

Irrfan Khan stars in the titular role as Tomar, and the actor has called this his most physically and emotionally demanding role to date.

Legendary runner Milkha Singh reportedly sold the rights of his story to director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra for Rs 1, just so the inspirational story can reach the people soon.

Lofty intentions aside, it is rumoured that the story of the Flying Sikh will feature Singh Is Kinng star Akshay Kumar in the title role.

The legendary singer's family maintains that there is only one Kishore biopic to be made, directed by Shoojit Sircar and written by Rensil D'Silva.

Meanwhile, Anurag Basu's rather bullish about making a Kishoreda film with Ranbir Kapoor in the lead role.

Aamir Khan, on the other hand, has expressed interest in Shashanka Ghosh's take on Kishoreda's life in a film that focusses on his tragic love story with Madhubala, with Vidya Balan playing the great heroine.

Which will be made first?

Wait and see, we could just have a repeat of the Bhagat Singh biopic race.