Shreya Mukherjee (HINDUSTAN TIMES; November 24, 2019)

Gone are the days when people would throng to theatres to watch heroes bashing the baddies black and blue. Those make-believe heroes have now been replaced by real heroes on screen, which has resulted in so many biopics being churned out. But inarguably, the most important bit about making a good biopic is casting the right actors.

“When making a biopic there are certain things to be kept in mind. There has to be similarities between the reel and real characters. Also, it’s important to note how much of the character’s demeanour can the chosen actor imbibe. For a film like India’s Most Wanted, one could take some liberty as not many would not know the faces of the terrorists, but that isn’t possible for a film like The Accidental Prime Minister because all the politicians in the story are well-known,” says actor and casting director Abhishek Banerjee.

Be it Anupam Kher as the former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (in The Accidental Prime Minister), Nawazuddin Siddiqui as Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray (in Thackeray) and author-playwright Saadat Hasan Manto (in Manto; 2018), Ranveer Singh as Kapil Dev (in ’83), R Madhavan as former scientist Nambi Narayanan (in the upcoming Rocketry), Vidya Balan as mathematician (in her next, Shakuntala Devi biopic), or Deepika Padukone as the acid attack survivor Laxmi Agarwal (in the much-awaited Chhapaak) — the makeover in each of these cases inevitably surprised the audience.

Explaining why makeup and prosthetics aren’t enough to look a certain part, casting director Mukesh Chhabra says, “We need to see if the face reminds us of the real life person. Casting for supporting roles is equally important.”

According to Nawazuddin, an actor needs to go that extra mile to look convincing. “You can’t take the chance by playing around with the audiences’ memory. It’s satisfying when people say, ‘you looked the part’,” he adds.

Director Omung Kumar feels while similarities do matter, a good actor can hold any character. However, having helmed biopics such as Mary Kom (2014), Sarbjit (2016) and PM Narendra Modi, he feels prosthetic makeup is a boon. “People said so much about Priyanka [Chopra Jonas] playing Mary Kom but she proved everyone wrong. For Sarbjit I took a liberty as his story was more popular than his face.”

For Ranveer’s look as Kapil, director Kabir Khan says he didn’t go for facial similarities while casting him. “How the actor matches the character’s persona is important. Ranveer’s energy matches Kapil Dev’s. In fact, all the characters were chosen accordingly, and went through extensive training and workshops to match the parts.”

Kabir adds, “When I watch Invictus (2009) I don’t question whether Morgan Freeman is looking like Nelson Mandela or not. He played the persona so well that a few minutes into the film, I forget I am looking at Freeman’s face,” he concludes.