Makers of the Bollywood biopic about former world and Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra hope the film will encourage youth to take up shooting as a sport.
Bindra became the first Indian to win an individual gold medal at the Olympic Games (the 10 metre Air Rifle event at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games).
Indian target shooters fared well in the recently concluded Commonwealth Games in Australia. Young shooters Manu Bhaker and Anish Bhanwala shined in the Gold Coast Games along with experienced marksmen such as Heena Sindhu and Tejaswini Sawant.
“This year Indian shooters picked up a lot of gold medals and it is entirely because of Abhinav as he showed the path. His gold medal has inspired entire generation of shooters. Abhinav’s achievements are inspiring,” sources said.
“One of our main motivations to make the film is that more young people should get inspired to take up shooting as a profession. I think Indians can become a world power in shooting,” they added.
Bindra is actively involved in the biopic, which will star Harshvardhan Kapoor as the lead.
“Abhinav is aware of everything that we are doing. Anytime there is a significant development in the script, we run it through him. He is very happy in terms of the way the story has been made,” the sources added.
Bollywood filmmakers are smitten by the sports personalities, and movies such as those made about former Indian track-and-field sprinter Milkha Singh and cricketer M S Dhoni reflect the love Hindi cinema has for sports.
The as-yet titled movie is being adapted from Bindra’s autobiography A Shot at History: My Obsessive Journey to Olympic Gold and Beyond.
“Ours is a unique biopic. The format of the biopic is different. We can’t reveal what is the uniqueness... It is not a standard biopic format,” the sources said.
The real life father-son duo of Anil Kapoor and Harshvardhan will be sharing screen space for the first time in 35-year-old Bindra’s biopic.
Currently, Harshvardhan is busy with his upcoming film Bhavesh Joshi and once the film releases on May 25, the actor will begin his full-fledged training in shooting for the biopic from June.
“He does prep work in between when he gets time. Harsh is very passionate about authenticity. He wants to be close to Abhinav’s style as far as possible for which he has been consulting this great woman shooter of India Suma Shirur,” the sources said.
Anil would be seen playing the role of Abhinav’s father in the movie.
“He [Anil] has spend some time with Abhinav’s father just to get acquainted with the story and pick up nuances for his character. For the father’s character there are more Punjabi touches,” the sources added.
The film is likely to go into production from October and major portions will be shot in Punjab and a chunk of it will be shot abroad as well.
