The success of No One Killed Jessica has triggered off a headline-driven movement in Hindi movies.
Apparently, a number of productions from Prakash Jha, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, UTV and Vipul Shah in the coming year, are based on real people and situations.
The first post-Jessica film based on newspaper headlines would be Sudhir Mishra's Driver.
Arunoday Singh will star in a real-life thriller based on the Sanjeev Nanda hit-and-run case. The film also features Chitrangada Singh.
Infamous tale
Adds an insider, 'The film is loosely inspired by the infamous Sanjeev Nanda case. On January 10, 1999, Nanda, the scion of a well-to-do family in Delhi and grandson of Admiral S M Nanda mowed down five people with his car."
Mishra wanted to make the film last year with Ranbir Kapoor in the lead. But now after Yeh Saali Zindagi, he has the confidence to cast his blue-eyed boy Singh in the title role.
Charismatic boy
Says Mishra, "Arunoday is a hundred percent on. He has the political background to understand the dynamics of the whole collusion of big money and murky politics in the capital.
Plus, he is a charismatic boy who has so far not been used properly in the films he has done."
Designer girlfriend
Interestingly, Driver will cast Chitrangada as the dress designer in Delhi. If we recall the Sanjeev Nanda episode there was a dress-designer girlfriend on the scene.
Like YSZ, Driver will be shot entirely in Delhi. Sudhir Mishra wonders why we don't have a thriving film industry in the Capital.
"One reason is because being an actress is still not considered a decent profession in the North. Actresses are still looked at as 'loose' women in Delhi and other North Indian cities. I want to break that image."
Films Based On Real Life Up for release*** UTV's Gangs Of Wasseypur directed by Anurag Kashyap being shot in Varanasi is actually about the coal mafia in Dhanbad (Jharkhand)
*** UTV's Paan Singh Tomar is a bio-pic on the of the controversial Sikh sprinter directed by Tigmanshu Dhulia and featuring Irrfan Khan in the title role.
*** Vipul Shah's Force the stress is on larger-than-life action. But director Nishikant Kamat, known for his real-life docu-like dramas will incorporate some well-known incidents of crime and punishment.
*** Prakash Jha's Aarakshan based on the job-reservation issue has innumerable references to real-life situations and characters.
*** Sudhir Mishra's next after Driver is a film based on Binayak Sen
Did you know?
Arunoday Singh's grandfather is politician Arjun Singh. The neta is critically ill and the newbie is spending a lot of time monitoring his grandfather's health.
