When real comes to reel

Janhvi Kapoor as Gunjan Saxen.

Ranveer as Kapil Dev.

Parineeti as Saina Nehwal.

Stories of real-life heroes being narrated on the silver screen have been all the rage lately. The year’s first releases, ‘Chhapaak’ starring Deepika Padukone exploring the life of acid attack survivor Laxmi Agarwal and ‘Tanhaji’ starring Ajay Devgn portraying the Maratha military leader Taanaji Malusare, have set the tone for 2020.

Gunjan Saxena:
The Kargil Girl

The film starring Janhvi Kapoor in the lead will show her as the first female Indian Air Force pilot Gunjan Saxena. She is known for having ventured into the war zone with co-pilot Srividya to evacuate injured soldiers from Kargil in 1999. The film is produced by Karan Johar under Dharma Productions.

Thalaivi

The upcoming trilingual film, directed by A L Vijay, explores the life of J Jayalalithaa. She was a politician, film actress and served as the chief minister of Tamil Nadu. Kangana Ranaut will be playing the role of Jayalalithaa.

’83

Directed by Kabir Khan, ‘’83’ will see Ranveer Singh playing the role of cricketer Kapil Dev. The film will tell the story of India’s historic win in the 1983 World Cup.

Sardar Udham Singh

Directed by Shoojit Sircar, actor Vicky Kaushal will be seen in the role of Udham Singh, a revolutionary freedom fighter. He is known for his assassination of Michael O’Dwyer, the former lieutenant governor of Punjab, in retaliation for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar in 1919.

Saina

Based on the life of badminton player Saina Nehwal, the film is directed by Amole Gupte and produced by Bhushan Kumar. Parineeti

Chopra will be playing the role of Saina.

Prithviraj

The film narrates the life of king Prithviraj Chauhan and will feature actor Akshay Kumar as Prithviraj and Manushi Chhillar as his wife. The film will be directed by Chandraprakash Dwivedi and will be produced by Yash Raj Films.

Maidaan

Ajay Devgn will star as football coach Syed Abdul Rahim who led the Indian football team to gold at the 1962 Asian Games, in the film.

It is directed by Amit Ravindernath Sharma. The film also stars Keerthy Suresh.

Shershaah

A biographical-action film directed by Vishnuvardhan, will follow the life of Captain Vikram Batra, an officer of the Indian Army. Sidharth Malhotra and Kiara Advani will be featured in the lead roles.
(Compiled by Tini Sara Anien)