Dangal
Short description
Dangal follows Mahavir Singh Phogat, a former wrestler in India who gave up the sport and hoped a son would one day win the honours he could not. Instead, he and his wife have four daughters, and his ambition appears to be finished. When the girls show a natural aptitude for wrestling, Mahavir begins training two of them, Geeta and Babita, setting up a conflict between his strict coaching and the expectations placed on young women in their community, as well as the daughters' own struggle to make their father's dream their own. The film is based on the real Phogat family.
Nitesh Tiwari directed and wrote the screenplay, working from a story by him and several co-writers, with Aamir Khan among the producers. It was Tiwari's second feature, released between Chillar Party and Chhichhore. Aamir Khan plays Mahavir, while Fatima Sana Shaikh and Sanya Malhotra play the grown Geeta and Babita, with Zaira Wasim and Suhani Bhatnagar as their younger selves. On a budget of about 9 million USD, it took roughly 305 million USD worldwide.
Audience response has been strong: on IMDb it holds 8.3/10 from around 241,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.9/10 from over 1,200 votes. A critics' rating of 7.8/10 from 18 reviews places professional assessment close to the audience verdict.
What's left behind the scenes
- Filming took place in the villages of Gujjarwal, Narangwal, Kila Raipur, Dango, and Lil in the states of Punjab and Haryana.
- For the filming, Aamir Khan studied the Haryanvi language.
- In 2012, Divya Rao, a member of Disney's creative team, read an article in the newspaper about Mahavir Singh Phogat, who trained his daughters to become world champions. She thought it would make a great film and told Siddharth Roy Kapur about it. Disney approached Nitesh Tiwari to write the screenplay and direct the film. Tiwari met with Phogat and his daughters, who immediately agreed to share their story.
- Part of the filming took place inside and near the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex in Pune. At that time, the 2015 Rollerball World Cup was being held there, and members of the Netherlands and Slovenia national teams played extras in scenes depicting sporting events and training.
- Divya Rao stated that if Aamir Khan had refused the role, it would have been offered to Mohanlal and Kamal Haasan.
- On November 14, 2015, during filming in Ludhiana, Aamir Khan suffered a back injury and underwent shoulder surgery a few days later. After recovering, Aamir returned to filming in December 2015.
- To play Mahavir at age 60, Aamir Khan gained 30 kg, and later lost weight to play Mahavir at age 20.
- In 2013, Siddharth Roy Kapur and Nitesh Tiwari visited Aamir Khan and told him the plot, which he immediately liked. He wanted to make the film in 5–10 years, when he was older, as the role required him to portray a 55-year-old. But the story stuck in his head, and a few months later he called Tiwari and asked him to tell the script again. Eventually, he agreed to play the lead role.
- Kripa Shankar Patel Bishnoi, the coach of the youth women's freestyle wrestling team, trained Aamir Khan and other actors and actresses.
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