How reasonable is it to tamper with someone's real life story in the biopics of Shakuntaladevi and Gunjan Saxena?

- The work culture of the Air Force is lightly portrayed in the film. The Indian Air Force has objected to this. The Air Force says that in an attempt to brighten up former flight lieutenant Gunjan Saxena, the film depicts a number of occasions that misrepresent and mislead the Air Force's work culture.

Recently, two Hindi films have been released on the OTT platform. Both the films are biopics and have been embroiled in controversy. 'Gunjan Saxena: The Cargill Girl' starring Janhivi Kapoor in the lead role has been accused of tarnishing the image of the Indian Air Force. Anyone who has seen the film will realize that the film gives a detailed account of how fighter pilot Gunjan (Janhvi Kapoor) was tortured at the Air Force's Udhampur station, led by one of its superiors. No male Air Force pilot is willing to go to Sorty in a helicopter with Annie. That's why a superior like a villain often cancels the humming sorty and doesn't let him experience flying.

From above he is punished for standing for hours on the tarmac of the airport. Udhampur Air Station has no separate facilities for female fighter pilots, including bathrooms. All the men together are constantly ignoring the humming. She is often made to feel that she is a weak Indian woman. And that's not the job of the Air Force. In one scene, the villainous officer invites Gunjan to fight with a young male fighter pilot and hurts his self-esteem by showing him repeatedly losing.

Most of the biopics show the heroine silently enduring injustice and torture. When Gunjan finally saves the life of the villainous officer at the risk of his own life during the Kargil War, everyone suddenly respects him. When the heroine completes her brave mission and returns to the chopper on the airback, all the male pilots stand in line and greet her with applause. Apparently, the work culture of the Air Force is lightly portrayed in the film.

The Indian Air Force has objected to this. The Air Force says the film, in an attempt to brighten up former flight lieutenant Gunjan Saxena, depicts a number of occasions that misrepresent and mislead the Air Force's work culture. Gunjan Saxena of Real Life has also denied that this happened to him and said that he is proud to be a fighter pilot of the Indian Air Force for so many years.

One of his female co-pilots has also lashed out at the film's producer-director for creating a negative image of the Air Force in the film. Even in the biopic of Shakuntala Devi, people believe that injustice has been done to this legendary woman mathematician. Mathematician Shakuntala Devi's intellect and brilliance have been sidelined in showing the conflict between mother and daughter in the film. Bollywood's writer-directors are known for taking so much leeway with the original subject in the name of Cinematic Liberty.

The question is whether it is reasonable to use such tricks in the name of cinematic liberty even in real life stories or biopics? What do the directors who made the biopic think? Tingmashu Dhulia, who made a biopic of Pansingh Tomar about Irrfan Khan eight years ago, says it is a subjective matter. It's okay to make some concessions in the script as long as history is not tampered with.

If you want to make a film about an event or person that a lot of people don't know about, I prefer to take a lot of concessions because no one knows about it. But the element of imagination in the biopic must be trivial. Fiction should not be added to the film to the extent of immorality.

Director Anant Mahadevan says that there is no need to do research for Bollywood films claiming to be real life stories. But Bollywood directors believe that they have the right to make concessions to make the subject matter entertaining. There is nothing wrong with making events dramatic. Even if it is a waste of authenticity. These people believe that Creative Liberty can be stretched as much as it wants.

Director Vivek Agnihotri, who was involved in the discussion, said there was no written rule on where the limits of Creative Liberty would be met. Yet the creator should have a little restraint when narrating a real-life story. No filmmaker has the right to change a person's life story for his own commercial purposes. Whatever you do for your own good will not work.