Director and actor Farhan Akhtar is to bring the struggle of Arunima Sinha, the first female amputee to climb Mount Everest, to the big screen.
“Farhan had come to meet me at my place here on May 18 and proposed to make a film on my life highlighting my struggle. I have accepted the offer,” Sinha said.
The national level volleyball player was pushed from a moving train by thieves in 2011 while resisting their attack. As a result, one of her legs had to be amputated below the knee.
“Farhan is very excited about this project of making the film on my life and will direct it himself. He has contacted me on twitter on April 20, but that time I was in Australia. Now we got the chance to discuss the project,” she said.
Akhtar told Sinha he had read her book Born Again on the Mountain and it had taken him to her world of struggle and he decided to make a film on it.
“Farhan said he wanted to make the film so that people could know about my struggle and get motivated just like his movie Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, in which the life of a great athlete was presented before the world.”
Sinha said she would take royalties for the film but not spend it on social welfare as she wanted to open a free sports academy for poor and differently-abled people.
The academy would be in Unnao district, in neigbouring Lucknow and would be named Pandit Chandra Shekhar Vikalang Khel Academy.
Sinha said the outline of the film would be finalised in Mumbai on May 25 when she releases the Marathi edition of her book.
“Milkha Singh ji had taken Rs1 as royalty for Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, but the aim of my life is to serve differently-abled persons and set up an academy for them. My royalties will be dedicated for them and even after me they would be getting its benefit,” she added.
Sinha had boarded the Padmavat Express train at Lucknow for Delhi on April 11, 2011, to take an examination to join the CISF, but was pushed out of a general coach of the train by thieves wanting to snatch her bag and gold chain.
She was treated at AII India Institute of Medical Sciences. She resolved to climb Mount Everest after being inspired by cricketer Yuvraj Singh, who had successfully battled cancer.
On May 21, 2013, Sinha climed Mount Everest and became the first female amputee to do so.
