Film is to be produced by Mahesh Bhatt.
By Tathagata Mitra
BANGALORE: Saina Nehwal, the first player from India to be awarded with an Olympic medal for badminton, wants Deepika Padukone to play her in a biopic.
Word is that Mahesh Bhatt is planning to make a film on Nehwal’s life and she says her first choice for the role would be Deepika.
Deepika is the daughter of Prakash Padukone, a formidable badminton player of his time, who had won the All England title in 1980. Deepika had a promising badminton career until she gave it up for modelling, and later turned to acting. She showed off her grace in the game of badminton in a song sequence in her debut film Om Shanti Om. She has also turned out to be one of the most versatile actresses in Bollywood, with a string of successes.
A biopic on a sports star’s life was not very common in Bollywood, but in recent times is the rage. Bollywood has made multiple sports dramas starring Hindi film industry actors as real life sports personalities.
Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, the most acclaimed film of last year, starred Farhan Akhtar as Milkha Singh. Priyanka Chopra is to star as Mary Kom in the pugilist’s biopic. Shah Rukh Khan’s Chak De India was based on a real life story of a coach of the Indian women’s hockey team. John Abraham and Shoojit Sircar’s next, 1911, will see John as a real life football captain of the Mohun Bagan club from over a century ago.