From A P J Abdul Kalam to Sourav Ganguly, these coming biopics are bringing some of India’s most fascinating lives to the big screen.
Key Points
- The coming films feature icons from science, music, sports, law, cinema and Indian history, including A P J Abdul Kalam, Sourav Ganguly and Ilaiyaraaja.
- Several projects boast stars like Dhanush, Rajkummar Rao, R Madhavan, John Abraham, Shraddha Kapoor and Rishab Shetty portraying legendary personalities.
- While biopics often fall into familiar storytelling patterns, these films have the potential to offer fresh perspectives on extraordinary lives.
Movie biopics are a tricky affair.
Most end up as hagiographies, more interested in presenting a sanitised image of their central figure than an honest portrait, almost deifying the person and becoming indistinguishable from one another.
These films usually follow the same template. The protagonist rises from humble beginnings, earns the spotlight through sheer brilliance, suffers a personal or professional fall that sends them down a darker path, and eventually redeems themselves at the highest point of their life or career.
What often works in their favour is the audience’s curiosity about these personalities, even if that comes at the cost of historical honesty, along with the lead performance. There is always the possibility of the actor earning widespread acclaim and perhaps an award or two.
Sure, there have been biopics that rose well beyond their performances, like Paan Singh Tomar, The Legend of Bhagat Singh, Dangal and the recent series Made in India: A Titan Story. But most struggle to be anything more than ordinary fare. The box office success isn’t a guarantee for the genre either.
With that in mind, we can only hope some of the coming biopics turn out to be genuine game changers. Several of these films have already generated curiosity simply because of the fascinating personalities they are bringing to the screen.
Before these stories unfold on the big screen, Sreeju Sudhakaran looks at 10 interesting coming biopics and the remarkable people they are based on. Release dates mentioned below are subject to changes.
Gopalswamy Doraiswamy Naidu, GDN
Release Date: July 17
A star-studded ensemble biopic directed by Krishnakumar Ramakumar, GDN stars R Madhavan as G D Naidu, the eminent engineer and inventor who challenged British rule by making technological innovations affordable for Indians.
Credited with creating India’s first indigenous electric motor, Naidu ventured into the automotive and agricultural industries, where many of his inventions and designs faced opposition from the British administration. His reputation grew so much that even Adolf Hitler reportedly invited him to share a stage with him.
He was also credited with establishing India’s first polytechnic college.
Vithabai Bhau Mang Narayangaonkar, Eetha
Release Date: August 28
Vithabai Bhau Mang Narayangaonkar was among Maharashtra’s best-known lavani and tamasha artistes, so devoted to her art that she famously returned to the stage shortly after giving giving birth.
Revered as Tamasha Samratini, Vithabai earned immense respect and numerous honours, yet had never enjoyed financial prosperity.
Eetha, directed by Laxman Utekar, features Shraddha Kapoor portraying the legendary performer in hopefully her finest performance to date.
Rakesh Maria, Maria IPS
Release Date: Unconfirmed
Before moving on to Golmaal 5, Rohit Shetty was working on a cop drama that wasn’t Singham.
Maria IPS (unconfirmed title) is based on the life of former Mumbai police commissioner Rakesh Maria, a name that isn’t easy to forget if you have been an integral part of the city culture and its fragile nature with violence and terrorist attacks a couple of decades ago.
Now retired, Maria was known for leading investigations into the 1993 Bombay blasts, the 2003 twin blasts and the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.
Earlier, Kay Kay Menon had portrayed him in Anurag Kashyap’s Black Friday. Now, it is John Abraham’s turn to bring the supercop to the screen.
Ujjwal Nikam, Prahaar: The Ujjwal Nikam Story
Release Date: August 7
If Rakesh Maria led the investigation into the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, Ujjwal Nikam was the special public prosecutor who represented the government in the trial that ultimately sent Ajmal Kasab to the gallows.
A Padma Shri awardee and current Rajya Sabha member representing the BJP, Nikam built a distinguished legal career handling several high-profile cases, including the Gulshan Kumar and Pramod Mahajan murder cases, as well as the 2013 Mumbai gang rape case.
Directed by Avinash Arun, Prahaar stars Rajkummar Rao as the celebrated lawyer.
Sourav Ganguly, Dada
Release Date: May 14, 2027
Rajkummar Rao isn’t done portraying real-life icons. He is also set to play one of India’s greatest cricketers, Sourav Ganguly.
The stylish left-handed batsman announced himself with a century on his Test debut at Lord’s in the 1990s before becoming a pillar of the Indian team across formats.
Appointed captain in the early 2000s, Ganguly rebuilt Indian cricket following the match-fixing scandal and moulded a fearless new generation.
His shirt-waving celebration on the Lord’s balcony after India’s famous NatWest Trophy triumph in 2002 remains one of cricket’s most iconic images. Of course, the biopic might also want to revisit the controversial period of his captaincy when he had to work with the contentious Australian coach, Greg Chappell.
Lala Amarnath, Lalkaar
Release Date: Unconfirmed
Although the film has not yet been officially announced, rumours strongly suggest Aamir Khan will reunite with his Lagaan director Ashutosh Gowariker for Lalkaar, reportedly backed by Farhan Akhtar, Ritesh Sidhwani and Rajkumar Hirani.
Khan is expected to portray Lala Amarnath, the first Indian cricketer to score a Test century.
Rather than being a straightforward biopic, Lalkaar, much like Kabir Khan’s ’83, is expected to focus on India’s historic Test series victory over Pakistan in 1952 under Amarnath’s leadership.
V Shantaram, V Shantaram
Release Date: Unconfirmed
Often regarded as one of the pioneers of Indian cinema, V Shantaram’s legacy is enriched by an oft-repeated, though unverified, anecdote. It is often claimed that the great Charlie Chaplin watched Shantaram’s Manoos and personally reached out to congratulate him.
Whether true or not, Shantaram’s contribution to Indian cinema remains unquestionable. His films were celebrated for their musical richness, with the filmmaker deeply involved in every creative department.
He had introduced Jeetendra to Hindi cinema with Geet Gaya Patharon Ne (1964), which also starred his daughter Rajshree.
For his immense contribution to Indian cinema, Shantaram had received the Dadasaheb Phalke Award and, posthumously, the Padma Vibhushan.
Siddhant Chaturvedi will portray the legendary filmmaker in the upcoming biopic, that’s written and directed by Abhijeet Shirish Deshpande.
A P J Abdul Kalam, Kalam: The Missile Man of India
Release Date: Unconfirmed
Following the failure of Adipurush, Director Om Raut is moving from mythology to real-life stories with a biopic on A P J Abdul Kalam, the father of India’s missile programme and one of the most influential figures in modern India.
Anyone with even a basic understanding of modern Indian history knows the significance of Kalam’s contributions to space technology through ISRO and to India’s nuclear programme.
He had played a key role in India’s successful Pokhran nuclear tests in 1998, carrying forward the legacy of his mentor, Dr Homi J Bhabha.
Dr Kalam served as India’s President from 2002 to 2007. Dhanush has been approached to play the much beloved People’s President.
Ilaiyaraaja, Ilaiyaraaja
Release Date: Unconfirmed
Like Rajkummar Rao, Dhanush isn’t content with portraying just one legend. He is also set to play another, this time from the world of music as he is ready to play music maestro Ilaiyaraaja in a film directed by Arun Matheswaran.
Ilaiyaraaja is regarded as one of Indian cinema’s finest composers, with over 5,000 melodious songs across Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi cinema.
Hailed as the Isaignani, his compositions revolutionised film music through their innovative orchestration and blending of Western and Indian traditions. He was someone who dared to go beyond the established conventions. An example of this was him being the first Indian composer to use a computer to compose a film soundtrack, in Vikram (1986).
A Rajya Sabha member today, he is a recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi award and the Padma Vibhushan.
Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, The Pride of Bharat: Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj
Release Date: January 21, 2027
So many movies and shows have been made about the founder of the Maratha empire, the warrior king who challenged the might of the Mughal empire, particularly the rule of Aurangzeb.
His concept of Swarajya, or self-rule, was both revolutionary and inspirational. His mastery of guerrilla warfare, the killing of Afzal Khan and his daring escape from Aurangzeb’s captivity have all become part of Indian folklore.
In 2026, audiences already saw Riteish Deshmukh portray Shivaji Maharaj in his directorial Raja Shivaji. Next, National Award winner and Kantara star Rishab Shetty will play the Chhatrapati in Sandeep Singh’s ambitious two-part historical epic, made reportedly on a huge budget of Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion).
Photographs curated by Satish Bodas/Rediff
