Badminton biopic in trouble because Gopichand reportedly wants less focus on Sindhu

Praveen Sattaru, the national-award winning director, is all set to make a film on India’s ace badminton coach Pullela Gopichand. The biopic will be released in three languages, namely, Telugu, English and Hindi.

Sudheer Babu, a former student of Gopichand who has now turned to acting, will portray the role of the badminton guru on the silver screen. The film will be shot in China, Japan, Ireland and Scotland.

However, it has come to light that a lack of funds could potentially stall the progress of the project. Apart from financial difficulties, Sportskeeda has learnt that there are other factors which could be a bigger hindrance for the project to go on the floor.

There have been numerous reports emerging which claim that Gopichand was not pleased with the changes in the movie which shift the focus to Olympic medallist PV Sindhu. It has also been reported that he has asked the filmmakers to portray Sindhu's Olympic win only during the end credits, and instead concentrate primarily on his life.

Reportedly, the project has temporarily come to a standstill with Gopichand refusing to sign the ‘No Objection Certificate’ (NOC).

For a long time now, the idea of a biopic on the legendary coach, who had a very illustrious playing career, has been in the pipeline. Once his protégé, Sindhu, claimed the silver medal at the Rio Olympics, the idea gained momentum.

Sportskeeda has further learnt that several changes had been made to the original script to give more focus to Sindhu’s Olympic triumph. The latter half of Gopichand’s life in the movie was centred around Sindhu winning the medal.

Gopichand is of the opinion that this might shift the focus of his story to Sindhu’s achievements. The filmmakers, on the other hand, believe that Sindhu’s medal-winning act could be the main attraction of the film and could draw in commercial success.

Nonetheless, Gopichand has decided to stand his ground and has reportedly said that he will not sign the NOC unless the filmmakers agree to his demands and make the necessary changes in the script.

Another obstacle in the way of the biopic is Sindhu’s reportedly unreasonable monetary demand. After her Olympic glory, the 21-year-old is now a bigger star than Gopichand himself and she has spelled out certain demands to the filmmakers if her story is to be used in Gopichand’s biopic.