Exclusive | Producer Ravi Bhagchandka Shares Updates on Yuvraj Singh Biopic and Mahesh Narayanan's 'Bombay High'

Almost a decade ago, producer Ravi Bhagchandka pulled off something that, in today's post-pandemic landscape, would be impossible to even conceive: releasing an independent documentary theatrically across multiple languages. Of course, it helped that the film was Sachin: A Billion Dreams, a definitive docudrama on the life of cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar.

"But it's just not going to happen today," says Bhagchandka, who backed the film under his banner 200 NotOut Productions — an explicit nod to the master blaster's historic double-century. "The times have changed fundamentally. Right now, the industry is struggling to get normal commercial fiction features to work in theaters, and the docu-genre has organically migrated to the streaming space."

Yet, it's not all gloom and doom for the independent banner. Bhagchandka is steadily building a diverse narrative slate at his production house, which ranges from the high-stakes rescue drama Bombay High directed by Mahesh Narayanan, and a highly anticipated biopic of Yuvraj Singh, to a Hindi adaptation of the National Award-winning Marathi film Funral, among others.

Edited excerpts from a conversation:

Since Sachin: A Billion Dreams was your official theatrical debut after doing ad films, why did you choose to start with a documentary? And what have these last ten years in the business taught you?

For one, Sachin Tendulkar is like God to me — my production house is actually dedicated to him. Given who he is, I completely rejected the idea of an actor playing him on screen. If you look internationally, legendary sports stars get definitive documentaries. India is one of the few countries where we habitually default to commercial biopics over documentaries. A biopic is often just a highly commercialised version of a life story, though the upside is that it reaches a much wider audience in our country. Both formats have their pros and cons.

As for the last decade, it taught me intense patience. We were co-producers on Sitare Zameen Par, which released last year, and we had been developing that specific project since 2018. These years taught me that I will never produce content just for the sake of staying in the cycle. I am perfectly fine waiting it out and playing golf rather than putting out a film I don’t have full conviction over. It gets frustrating when projects take years or don't land, but that is the reality of filmmaking.

Do you think a documentary of that scale is impossible to mount for a theatrical release today?

It’s just not going to happen today. Right now, the industry is struggling to get normal commercial fiction features to work in theaters. Sachin Tendulkar was a singular phenomenon, and perhaps you could try something similar with Virat Kohli today, but the times have changed fundamentally.

The docu-genre has organically migrated to the streaming space. You look at international successes like The Last Dance, or documentaries on Ayrton Senna and Muhammad Ali — they thrive on OTT. Because of that shift, finding theatrical backing for a documentary in this day and age is an extreme challenge.

You are currently developing Bombay High with Mahesh Narayanan. What is the status of that project?

It’s a rescue drama. I watched his film Malik and was completely blown away by his vision. We approached him with this core rescue concept, and he was immediately excited to collaborate. We have developed the story, and since his latest feature Patriot has just come out, we are diving back into the screenplay. We intend to lock the script and take it to actors within the next four to five months, depending on talent availability.

You also hold the remake rights to the National Award-winning Marathi film Funral. Where does that stand?

Yes, it’s a brilliant, dark comedy-drama about celebrating death, which is a beautifully unique concept. It’s a very sweet, hilarious film, and we are currently interviewing directors to adapt it. The goal is to scale that story up and introduce its philosophy to a much wider audience.

What about the highly-anticipated Yuvraj Singh biopic?

The screenplay writing is going on non-stop. We are deep in the trenches and expect to have a locked draft ready within the next couple of months. It is a massive responsibility because his life has been an incredible journey of massive professional highs and personal challenges. It is proper, cinematic material. We already have a director and writer officially locked on board, and we will be making a formal announcement very soon.

Given the streaming contraction and shrinking non-theatrical revenues, has the right budgeting become a survival tool for independent producers?

It is absolutely critical. You have to scrutinise production budgets to the absolute T with a microscopic lens. Any financial misstep right now can be catastrophic because the entire ecosystem is on edge.

Satellite television rights are nearly non-existent now, and digital OTT platforms are aggressively squeezing their budgets. Even if you are mounting a project with a recognised star, budgets are incredibly tight. You have to scan the line items repeatedly to make the numbers viable before turning on a camera.

If you contrast your industry conversations from a decade ago to today in 2026, what are the primary concerns keeping producers up at night?

A decade ago, the sole conversation was about what was going to happen in theaters. Today, the urgent question is who is actually going to go to the theaters, and whether a script possesses the gravity to alter modern viewing habits.

The pandemic changed consumer behavior completely. It’s not an issue of content quality; we made great films and terrible films back then, and we still make both now. The alarming issue is the destruction of the movie-going habit and infrastructure.

Right now, we are left with only a handful of bankable stars for theatrical cinema. We are a nation of 130 crore people, but we have effectively priced out the lower-middle class from the multiplex ecosystem. Even if I offer to pay for my driver’s or house help's movie tickets, they feel physically intimidated entering a modern multiplex. The 15 to 20 crore people who genuinely want to consume cinema as a community outing lack accessible single screens. Until our infrastructure is re-evaluated to accommodate the diversity of the Indian audience, experimenting with different types of genres theatrically will remain incredibly difficult.