Startup stories: What draws viewers to the genre

Films based on the lives of biz founders can be as much fun as romances

Girish Karnad plays the role of Verghese Kurian in the fictionalised narrative of 'Manthan'.

Jesse Eisenberg in ‘The Social Network’.

Globalisation and mass media have ensured that products and services have millions of users across the world. Some of these products and services have been created due to the extraordinary efforts of their creators.

These extraordinary efforts can feed cinematic imagination in the same manner as love stories or the lives of icons like Gandhi and Martin Luther King.

Founders of these companies are always in the news. And even if the publicity is negative, interest in films based on these personalities have been high. Studios that have taken risks by making such films have found box office success.

The 2010 film, ‘The Social Network’, based on the life of Mark Zuckerberg was a box office hit. So was the 2023 film ‘Air’, based on the origin of Air Jordans.

‘The Playlist’ (2022), a Netflix series based on the founder of Spotify, Daniel E K became popular upon release.

The reason for the success could be due to familiarity bias as, apps like Facebook and Spotify are commonly used.

Apart from this familiarity bias, these films use effective emotional hooks and storytelling techniques to make a gripping narrative.

Appeal of the underdog

Spotify upstaged the CD and the record industry while Mark Zuckerberg got a negotiated settlement winning against a more privileged and powerful set of entrepreneurs.

Nike bet on an upcoming star who designed a shoe and paid him a percentage of royalties on every sale of Air Jordan shoes.

All these scenarios appeal to the human need for lending support to the underdog.

The dramatic victories in the end ensure an intense emotional connection.

Exploration of a young entrepreneur’s mindset

In ‘The Social Network’, director David Fincher concentrates on the initial successes and tribulations of Zuckerberg. Using a combination of real incidents and cinematic liberties, the storytelling tries to explore the mind of a college kid trying to break into the corporate world.

It ventures into three interlinked timelines, fast edits and racy music to maintain a gripping pace.

While one timeline explores how the mind of Zuckerberg works; the other two timelines are about his legal disputes, one of them is with a partner.

In Fincher’s narrative the focus is only on Zuckerberg. However, Per-Olav Sørensen, the director of ‘Playlist’, tries to tell the story of Spotify through multiple people responsible for its success. Since the film was made for an OTT platform, he had the luxury of time to narrate a story.

Interestingly, the founders of Facebook and Spotify have been depicted as people who are experts in business and technology but poor in social and emotional skills.

Are the founders really like that in real life? Or did the directors pander to the popularly held belief that tech founders are emotionally challenged?

The Indian angle

In the Indian context, very few films have shown the struggles of entrepreneurs.

In Karnataka, the biopic based on Vijay Sankeshawar, the founder of the conglomerate VRL group, saw limited success.

Readers wondering why Mani Ratnam’s ‘Guru’ (2007) is not mentioned need to consider the fact that the director himself noted that it is a fictional story bearing no connection to Dhirubhai Ambani.

A cut above the rest

Shyam Benegal’s ‘Manthan’ (1970) is based on Amul’s cooperative movement.

In contrast to the stylised storytelling techniques of the western media, ‘Manthan’ moves linearly without any flashbacks or flash-forwards. Perhaps that decision was intentional in order to keep the narrative simple, especially to cater to the audience it intended to serve which included farmers across the country.

The film is a documentation of the challenges faced by Verghese Kurien, the founder of Amul, and his team to start a co-operative society devoid of the barriers of caste, creed and wealth.

‘Manthan’ is indeed a cut above the rest, because of the choices that the scripting team of Vijay Tendulkar, Shyam Benegal and Kurien have made.

The story dares to venture into caste politics and economic disparities. It leaves behind the decision of continuing or closing the co-operative society to the villagers. In the end, the Harijan leader decides to build and develop the society.

The future forward

The popularity of business shows such as Shark Tank, and webseries on personalities like stockbroker, Harshad Mehta, is a definite indicator that there will be more films and cinematic content about businesses in future.

Apart from a film on how Jamahed Tata built a world-class company, It would be wonderful to see a biopic of Jaswantiben Jamnadas Popat who founded Lijat Papad.