Biopic is a totally different monster: Rajkumar Hirani

Filmmaker Rajkumar Hirani, who on Tuesday launched the much-awaited teaser of "Sanju" -- a film on the life of actor Sanjay Dutt -- says the experience of making a biopic is very different from a regular future film especially at the scripting level.

Since this is the first time that the filmmaker has made a biopic, that too on a colourful celebrity like Sanjay, who is not only successful and inspirational as a film star but has also had a controversial past, Hirani found it tough.

"I think biopic is a totally different monster altogether because you don't have a total control over it. When you write a fresh script, a regular story, you have control over it. It is your story... you can turn the flow of your characters in whichever way you want. That's not the case with a biopic," Hirani told the media.

"I think we would not have been able to write the story from our imagination, and the best thing is that Sanjay has given us the access to his story and all the anecdotes. So during the making of the film, the journey was more of how to string those stories into one," he added.

Hirani said the audience can expect to know some hidden facets of the life of Sanjay, whose tryst with drugs and time in jail has been widely spoken about.

"As a filmmaker, I took chapters that interested me, but I am always interested in human stories. So I wrote the story of father-son, friendship... These are the stories that people do not know because the rest is all out there," added the filmmaker.

"Sanju", which releases on June 29, features Ranbir Kapoor portraying different avatars of Sanjay from his newcomer days.

Ranbir and Hirani were present at the teaser launch with producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Fox Star Studios' Vijay Singh.

--IANS

aru/rb/vm