Why Indians love sports films

IN THE closing minutes of “Dangal” (“Wrestling Bout”), the protagonist, a doughty 22 year-old female wrestler from rural India, triumphs in the 2010 Commonwealth Games. As she accepts the gold medal on the podium and the national anthem is played, film audiences across India have stood up from their seats in standing ovations. Estimates place the domestic box-office takings at around $60m; the biopic has smashed all box office records to become the highest-grossing movie in the history of Bollywood.

Most of the country’s prominent athletes have been immortalised in film. M.S. Dhoni’s “Untold Story” was told last year. Mary Kom, the country’s first female boxer to win a medal, was played by Priyanka Chopra in 2014. In 2012, “Paan Singh Tomar” traced the story of a steeple-chase champion turned bandit. A recurring theme in these films is the state governments’ lack of money for sport due to squeezed budgets or graft; when athletes prevail, they do so thanks to their own unyielding resolve. In “Dangal”, the protagonist and her sister are trained on mattresses and in mud-pits rather than synthetic mats and wrestling arenas. It reflects the lack of...Continue reading