Deepika Padukone to play PV Sindhu in the shuttler's biopic?

What’s the story?

Deepika Padukone is set to star in a biopic on the life of Indian Badminton player and current world no. 3 PV Sindhu. Sonu Sood is set to produce the film, which is under works and he is hoping to cast Deepika to play the leading role.

Sood said he wants to depict Deepika as the badminton star and said he would approach the actress once the script is completed.

“I would love to see Deepika playing character of Sindhu in my film. She is a fine actress. We are still in scripting stage. If the part is offered to her and she likes the script and director, and has the time for it, she will surely give her nod.

“After the completion of the script, I would like to approach her for this role because when you become producer, it becomes a huge responsibility to present a strong script in front of actors,” Sonu said, talking about the movie.

In case you didn’t know...

Sindhu first came into the limelight in 2012 after defeating the World No. 1 at the time Li Xuerui at the China Masters. A year later, she won a bronze at the World Championships in 2013 and then repeated that achievement in 2014, finishing third at the prestigious event.

The current World No. 3 won the Malaysia Masters Grand Prix Gold women’s singles title in 2016 and also won the India Open Superseries this year, beating World No.2 Carolina Marin in the final.

Sindhu clinched the silver medal in Rio Olympics 2016 and made history by becoming the first individual female to bag an Olympic Silver medal for India. This was only the second time that any Indian badminton player finished on the podium at the Olympics.

The heart of the matter

Deepika is the daughter of former World No.1 badminton player Prakash Padukone and she herself has played badminton at the national level. Sonu and Deepika have worked together previously in the Farah Khan film “Happy New Year”.

According to reports, locations for the film have already been finalised with some of it to be shot in Dubai. The background work for the film has been completed as well and the production team has contacted Sindhu and her family to collect information for the movie.

What’s next?

A film on badminton player Saina Nehwal is also in the pipeline with actress Shraddha Kapoor playing the player’s role. Although the two films have badminton as the common ground, they are expected to have different styles. The Saina biopic is slated for a 2018 release while Sindhu’s biopic’s release date has not been revealed yet.

Author’s take

It is good to see that there are two films being made on Badminton, a sport that isn’t as popular as cricket or football in this country. Sindhu captured the nation’s attention with her Rio Olympics Silver medal and a movie on her life will inspire a lot of young boys and girls to pursue the sport as a career.