It’s been years since PT Usha ran the track, but if this plan of the central government works out, the yesteryears Asian Games champion may just catch a glimpse of her past glory on the silver screen soon.
With the information and broadcasting ministry sanctioning Rs 12 crore to produce films on six of India’s elite sportspersons, ranging from tennis champ PV Sindhu to hockey legend Dhyan Chand, few can wait to see which Bollywood heartthrob would be roped in to play their favourite player. HT asked its readers to place their bets, and these are the names they came up with…
DEEPIKA PADUKONE
Daughter of Prakash Padukone and a former player herself, Deepika seems the logical choice to portray the lanky Sindhu.
PV SINDHU
Just when medal hopes were firing blanks at Rio Olympics, PV Sindhu rose to stardom winning silver, a first for India in badminton.
LEANDER PAES
Winner of 18 Grand Slams, his crowning moment was the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, where India won their first individual medal in tennis – a bronze.
AYUSHMAN
KKHURANA
In “Vicky Donor”, he was quite convincing with a cricket bat. The ‘Roadies’ winner could well learn to hit a few, “Lee” style.
KARNAM MALLESWARI
Winner of 1994 and 1995 world weightlifting titles, she was the first Indian woman to win an Olympic medal in Sydney 2000.
SONAKSHI SINHA
Having made the foray into action roles with ‘Akira’ and ‘Force 2’, time is ripe for Sonakshi to lift some weights.
DHYAN CHAND The hockey legend was part of the team that won gold at the 1928 (Amsterdam) and 1932 (Los Angeles) Olympic Games. Captaining the team in 1936 (Berlin Games), he again won India gold.
FARHAN
AKHTAR
“Chak de India” proved there’s room for hockey on celluloid. Farhan is no stranger to biopics with “Bhaag Milkha Bhaag”.
PT USHA
Her missing bronze by 100th of a second in the 400m hurdles in 1984 LA Olympics is still talked about. Two years later, she won four gold medals at the Seoul Asian Games.
PARINEETI
CHOPRA
After a low-key two years, this could be her perfect second coming. Her new-found focus on fitness could just push her to a podium finish.
A biopic on Mary Kom featuring Priyanka Chopra was released in 2014. HT readers did pitch for a redux. But we decided to leave the five-time world boxing champion out of this.
Source: HindustanTimes