Directed by Nitesh Tiwari
Produced by Aamir Khan
Kiran Rao
Siddharth Roy Kapur
Written by Nitesh Tiwari
Piyush Gupta
Shreyas Jain
Nikhil Meharotra
Starring Aamir Khan
Sakshi Tanwar
Fatima Sana Shaikh
Sanya Malhotra
Zaira Wasim
Suhani Bhatnagar
Music by Pritam
Cinematography Sethu Sriram
Edited by Ballu Saluja
Production
company
Walt Disney Pictures
Aamir Khan Productions
UTV Motion Pictures
Distributed by Walt Disney Studios
Motion Pictures
Release dates
21 December 2016 ( USA) [1]
23 December 2016 ( India)
Running time
160 minutes
Country India
Language Hindi
Budget ₹70 crore[2]
Box office est. ₹443.74 crore ( 9 Days) [3]
Dangal ( English: Wrestling competition) is a 2016 Indian biographical sports drama film directed by Nitesh Tiwari. It stars Aamir Khan as Mahavir Singh Phogat, [4][5] who taught wrestling to his daughters Geeta Phogat and Babita Kumari.[6][7][8] The former is India's first female wrestler to win at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, where she won the gold medal ( 55 kg) . Her sister Babita Kumari won the silver ( 51 kg) . Dangal is the Hindi term for a wrestling competition.
The music for Dangal was composed by Pritam, while the lyrics were written by Amitabh Bhattacharya. Kripa Shankar Bishnoi, a coach with the Indian women's wrestling team, trained Aamir Khan and the entire crew for the wrestling sequences.[9]
Released worldwide on 23 December 2016, [10] Dangal was declared tax-free in three Indian states — Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Haryana — to promote Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao, a Government of India's social campaign aiming to reduce selective abortion of females, to protect girls, and to educate them.In March 2015 Taapsee Pannu, Deeksha Seth and Akshara Haasan were being considered for the roles of Khan's on-screen daughters.[24] In April 2015, Fatima Sana Shaikh and Sanya Malhotra were cast as the daughters, who hailed from the Jat community of Balali village of Bhiwani, Haryana. [25][26][27] Geeta Phogat had participated in the London Olympics in 2012.[28] Babita won gold in 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.[29][30] In June 2015, child actors Zaira Wasim ( from Kashmir) and Suhani Bhatnagar ( from Delhi) were roped in for Dangal.[31] Ayushmann Khurrana's brother Aparshakti Khurrana was also cast.[32] Mukesh Chhabra was the casting director of Dangal. Vikram Singh was recruited to play the role of the villain.[33][34] Aamir Khan's nephew Pablo ( son of Mansoor Khan) was the film's assistant director.[35][36] Mallika Sherawat auditioned for a role.[37] In August 2015, Rajkumar Rao, who previously worked with Aamir Khan in Talaash, was approached for an important role in Dangal.[38] Finally, after auditioning 70 actresses for the role, Sakshi Tanwar was brought on as Daya Kaur, the wife of Mahavir Singh Phogat.[39][40][41] Ananya was chosen to play Sarita, the youngest daughter of Mahavir Phogat.[42][43] In October 2015, Vivan Bhatena was selected to play a negative role in the film.[44]
Filming
The shooting schedule of Dangal began on 1 September 2015.[45][46] The villages of Ludhiana were given a Haryanvi transformation.[47][48] The shooting took place in the villages of Gujjarwal, Narangwal, Kila Raipur, Dango and Leel in Punjab and Haryana.[49][50] Interestingly, the village of Dango, which is in the Pakhowal Tehsil in Ludhiana, is veteran actor Dharmendra's ancestral village.[51]
From September 2015 to December 2015, Aamir Khan gained 9% fat, weighing around 98 kg for Dangal, and from January 2016 to April 2016, he regained the shape that he had opted for in Dhoom 3 and will hear the script for next future films, halting shooting of Dangal for said period.[52]
The first scene was taken on 21 September 2015 in Ludhiana with the presences of Mahavir Singh Phogat and his both daughters Geeta Phogat, Babita Kumari.[53]
On 14 November 2015, while shooting in Ludhiana, Khan suffered minor injuries resulting in muscle spasms in his back.[54][55][relevant? ] On November 20, 2015, Khan collapsed after sustaining a shoulder injury on the set.[56] After suffering an injury Aamir Khan resumes shooting in Pune on 9 December 2015.[57]
The team filmed in and around stadiums at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex in Pune. At the time, the complex hosted the 2015 Rollball World Cup, and athletes of the Netherlands national rollball team and Slovenia women's national rollball team were recruited to play background athletes in the film. The team also shot some portions of the film in Symbiosis International University, Pune.[58][59]
On 19 January 2016, Khan and the entire crew of the film shot in Delhi, at Talkatora Stadium, to film wrestling sequences. The crew then moved to Thyagaraj Stadium to shoot sequences of Commonwealth Games and National Games.[60] The first schedule of shooting was also done in schools and in Dango village, located in Pakhowal Tehsil in Ludhiana.[61]
The second schedule of the film started on 16 June 2016 at the Akhada Leel near Toosa village, in Ludhiana district. It is one of the largest villages in Punjab, India. Khan said, When I came to Ludhiana, I was very fat. At that time, we shot for the scenes where Mahavir has become old. 85 per cent of the film is about his 'old' look only. Now we are shooting for the portion when Mahavir was young.
