Rajkummar Rao’s biopic run: Rs 3.6 cr to Rs 62.9 cr

A courtroom brief with a twist

Rajkummar Rao is stepping into the shoes of Ujjwal Nikam, the public prosecutor known for the 1993 Mumbai blasts and 26/11 trials, in Avinash Arun’s Prahaar: The Ujjwal Nikam Story. The film releases October 16, 2026, with Wamiqa Gabbi, Jaideep Ahlawat and Sikandar Kher around him.

At the India Today Conclave, Nikam said he set one condition: “nobody, including himself, should be glorified.” That is a tricky brief for a courtroom drama, and it is exactly the kind of challenge Rao has been choosing for more than a decade.

The real-life file

Rao’s biopic choices have never been one note. His breakthrough National Award came with Shahid (2013), where he played lawyer Shahid Azmi and turned a difficult story into quiet conviction. The film made roughly Rs 3.6 crore worldwide, but it made his reputation.

Since then he has moved through:

• Chittagong (2012) as revolutionary Lokenath Bal in an ensemble
• Bose: Dead/Alive (2017), shaving his head to play Subhas Chandra Bose
• Omerta (2018), as terrorist Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, a role with no redemption arc, earning about Rs 4.5 crore worldwide
• Aligarh (2016), as journalist Deepu Sebastian, with a Malayalam-accented Hindi drawn from meeting the real reporter
• Srikanth (2024), as visually impaired entrepreneur Srikanth Bolla, collecting about Rs 50 crore net in India and Rs 62.9 crore worldwide to become a semi-hit

What links these parts is not just physical detail, though Rao is willing to work on shaving his head or a Malayalam-influenced accent. It is that each person comes with a different emotional vocabulary, and his best work makes that homework invisible.

Why the range matters

Most actors use biopics to chase applause or an obvious emotional payoff. Rao has also played a terrorist and a journalist whose story sits inside someone else’s film. That range means audiences cannot predict what he will do next, which is rare in an industry that loves to box its stars.

Srikanth’s result mattered because it showed a biographical drama could connect with mainstream viewers without a superhero or a universe. Its National Award recognition only added to the point: real lives, told with care, still have a place in Hindi cinema.

What Prahaar must get right

Nikam’s no-glorification rule fits Rao’s instincts. The risk is that courtroom dramas can tip into speeches, but Rao’s best work makes the process feel invisible. If Prahaar holds that line, it should feel less like a victory lap and more like a person trying to do a difficult public job.

Next up, Rao faces a different kind of pressure with Dada: The Sourav Ganguly Story, set for May 14, 2027. The first-look poster recreated the Lord’s shirt-wave and drew backlash; Rao has admitted the team should not have rushed it and has learnt that lesson. A familiar figure like Ganguly leaves no room for approximation, and the response to that poster is a reminder that real-life casting is a promise about detail.

Source: India Today