Dubai: Sushant Singh Rajput’s portrayal of Mahendra Singh Dhoni in his biopic won him a legion of admirers - and one of them was Shane Watson, the former Australian allrounder and a longtime teammate of the former India captain in Chennai Super Kings.
Taking to Twitter on a day India were still mourning the 34-year-old actor’s loss, Watson wrote: “I can’t stop thinking about #sushantsinghrajput. It is just so tragic!!! In The Untold Story, at times you forgot whether it was Sushant or MSD. Amazing portrayal and now the world is much poorer with him not here in it. #gonetoosoon.”
The making of the movie had seen Rajput working overtime with former India wicketkeeper Kiran More as well as Dhoni’s childhood coach Keshav Banerjee. The latter revealed on Sunday that Rajput kept working on the famous ‘helicopter shot’ under his guidance.
“He was such a gentle boy. He was so well behaved and I today as I watch news channels, I cannot believe it,” Banerjee said in an interview.
“I remember when he came to Ranchi. We had a long chat. I was there. Mahi’s friends were there. He always used to tell me, ‘dada Dhoni ka helicopter shot sikha do na (please teach me how to play the helicopter shot)’.
“He was after me, the way Mahi used to play it. How would his facial expressions. He was so focussed. Single minded determination. That’s why it came out so well. You could not tell it was not Dhoni. Today I have only memories, and I really am in utter shock,” he added.
