A popular newspaper carried an article about the increasing popularity of wrestling among Delhi-ites in recent times and how it is now being seen as cool and as an actual option for serious sports persons. Gym enthusiast and young urban professionals are now seeing wrestling in a different light following main stream movies made recently or to be completed in the near future that are about this sport. It isn’t just men; women are also inspired by the recently released Salman Khan and Anushka Sharma starrer Sultan which portrays successful women wrestlers as well. So is Bollywood making wrestling cool now?
Bollywood is making more movies about sport and sportspersons
It is a good time for Bollywood and movies of all types are being made now. Filmmakers are not shying away from doing movies about sport; even biopics based on real life sporting heroes. The sort of success enjoyed by movies such as Bhaag Milkha Bhaag (about Milkha Singh one of our best known athletes) and Mary Kom (the boxer who has won world championships and an Olympic medal) has to be encouraging as well. Filmmakers now feel that audiences are mature enough to demand better cinema; movies that go beyond the formulaic and the predictable. So while we will have movies being made about cricketing stars such as the recent Azhar or the upcoming movie about Mahendra Singh Dhoni, we also have stories being told about other, lesser known stars that are no less inspiring.
Two of the top Bollywood stars have starred in movies about wrestling
Hitherto, wrestling has been a sport that is generally perceived as an ‘akhada’ sport or a niche that may not bring one much fame or money or future opportunities. The contact sport doesn’t have the wide appeal of hockey or the glamour and monetary lure of cricket for instance. Suddenly two of the top actors in Bollywood today have done or are doing movies about wrestling and wrestlers: Aamir Khan’s upcoming Dangal and the recently released Sultan.
This stirs up interest in the sport and also adds a touch of glamour to a sport that was perhaps thought of as being rather down market by some. This changes the way people perceive the sport; because like it or not, Bollywood exerts tremendous influence; in this case a positive influence. All the gym-bodies, concentrating hard on how to get ripped so that they looked good in those tight t-shirts are now noticing how ripped Salman’s Sultan is in the movie… all that once, that dusty akhada seems a wee bit less pedestrian and a lot more desirable. So yes, right now it does seem that Bollywood is responsible for making wrestling cool!
Author – Reena Daruwalla
