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Saina Nehwal is widely regarded as one of the greatest Indian sportspersons in recent times and rightly so. She is the first Indian shuttler to win an Olympic medal, which she won at the London Olympics back in 2012, and is just the second Indian after Prakash Padukone to attain the World Number 1 spot in the rankings.
She is widely credited for popularising the sport in the country and has received the Arjuna and Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award along with the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian honour. She is set to have another feather added to her cap as she joins an illustrious list of sportspersons to have had a Bollywood biopic made on them.
Playing her role in the film will be star actress Shraddha Kapoor, who has started training for the film under the star shuttler herself and her famed coach Pullela Gopichand. Nehwal posted a picture on social media featuring the actress and her coach, which shows that Kapoor is learning from the very best in the business.
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The trend of sports biopics has been on in the Indian film industry for quite a while now, with superstars such as Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni, Mary Kom, the Phogat sisters and Milkha Singh all having films made on their lives and journeys.
The actress has been training for the film for a few months now and will look to do justice to Nehwal's role, who has been the shining light of Indian badminton for almost a decade. The film will be shot in Mumbai, Hyderabad and a few other places. Its release is expected to take place by the end of the next year, at around December 2018.
The image of Kapoor training with Nehwal and Gopichand has gone viral, with many fans commenting about their excitement for the project. Here are the best reactions:
Also read: Actress Shraddha Kapoor preparing for her role in the Saina Nehwal biopic
