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The newly released biopic Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl has opened to good reviews but has also snowballed into a controversy for supposedly distorting facts about the Indian Air Force. More importantly, the film does not show IAF pilot Sreevidya Rajan from Kerala, who also served in the Kargil war with Gunjan. Sreevidya has, in fact, said that she was the first woman IAF officer to fly in a combat zone and not Gunjan as the film suggests. Though the makers have said that the film is a fictionalised account, it has drawn sharp criticism for these departures.
While Bollywood has made several biopics and films based on real life incidents, the southern industries are slowly catching up with the trend. Perhaps in future, south Indian filmmakers will recognise the potential of such stories and we will see more south Indian films like Mallesham (Telugu) and Take Off (Malayalam) which celebrate and document the lives of people from the southern states in their own language.
Meanwhile, here are six Hindi films based on real life people from the south. Some of them have retained the origins of the character though the language is Hindi while others have completely changed even this.
The Dirty Picture: This 2011 film directed by Milan Luthria is based on the life of south Indian actor Silk Smitha, who was known for her erotic roles. The role was played by Vidya Balan. Although the makers claimed that the film is not a biopic but is the story of many such women actors, the resemblances to Smitha's life, from the name 'Silk' to her death, cannot be missed.
Airlift: This 2016 film directed by Raja Krishna Menon had Akshay Kumar play Ranjit Katyal, a Kuwait-based Hindi speaking businessman. When Iraq and Kuwait go into war, Ranjit becomes entangled and he eventually helps with the evacuation of fellow Indians. In real life, it was Malayali businessman Mathunny Mathews (Toyota Sunny) who helped with the evacuation of as many as 1,70,000 Indians.
Poorna: Courage has no limits: This 2017 film directed by Rahul Bose is based on Poorna Malavath, who comes from a tribal community in Telangana. Poorna was the youngest person to climb Mount Everest. The role was played by actor Aditi Inamdar.
Pad Man: Directed by Balki, this 2018 film is inspired by entrepreneur Arunachalam Muruganantham who came up with a machine to make low cost sanitary napkins. Though Murugantham is from Tamil Nadu, he was named Laxmi Kant Chauhan and was shown to be from Uttar Pradesh. Akshay Kumar played the lead role.
Mission Mangal: This 2019 film directed by Jagan Shakti was about India's mission to Mars and featured several characters inspired by real life scientists who were involved in the project. Akshay Kumar played Rakesh Dhawan, the director of Mission Mangal. The character is inspired by Mylswamy Annadurai of Tamil Nadu who was the Programme Director of Chandrayaan 1, Chandrayaan 2 and Mangalyaan. Vidya Balan played Tara Shinde who was inspired by scientist Seetha Somasundaram who led the Mars Oribiter Mission. K Radhakrishnan from Kerala, who headed ISRO, was shown as Vikram Gokhale while scientist Nandini Harinath from Bengaluru became Kritika Aggarwal (played by Taapsee Pannu). Other characters who underwent an identity change include Parameshwar Joshi (P Kunhikrishnan of Kerala).
Shakuntala Devi: This 2020 film directed by Anu Menon was based on the 'human computer' Shakuntala Devi who hails from Karnataka. The role was played by Vidya Balan. The film takes us through Shakuntala's life from childhood to her fame in international circles and her complicated relationship with her daughter.