Both are front-runners to play shooter Abhinav Bindra in an upcoming biopic. Who is your pick? VOTE and tell us…
It is the season for sportspersons’ biopics. At last count, we had four films in the pipeline or on the floors — on the lives of wrestler Mahavir Singh Phogat (starring Aamir Khan) cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni (starring Sushant Singh Rajput), badminton player Saina Nehwal (to feature Deepika Padukone) and hockey wizard Dhyan Chand (still to be cast). Now comes the news that a biopic on the Olympian shooter Abhinav Bindra is ready to go on floors as soon as the main casting is place.
The film on Bindra will be directed by Kannan Iyer, who earlier directed the eerie Ek Thi Daayan. Says a source, “The cast is in place except the central character. For Bindra’s role, Iyer has zeroed in on two actors — Ranbir Kapoor and Varun Dhawan — who have the right build, age and spirit to portray Bindra from age 17 to his present age (33).” Apparently, both actors have displayed a keen interest in the project. The final choice will depend on the availability of dates.
Says the source, “Both are busy stars. And this film requires a long stretch of uninterrupted dates from the actors. Right now, the front-runner is Ranbir as he shares the same birth date as Abhinav Bindra. However, his dates are committed to another biopic (Sanjay Dutt’s) to be directed by Rajkumar Hirani. Both, Ranbir and Varun stand an equally good chance of playing Bindra. Also, Varun has not done any biopics (but is in talks for playing Dhyan Chand), so it would be interesting to see if he picks up the Bindra biopic first.”