Taapsee Pannu will soon be stepping into the shoes of Indian cricket icon Mithali Raj for a biopic which will now be helmed by National Award-winning director Srijit Mukherji instead of Rahul Dholakia, who was earlier slated to direct the film. In an exclusive chat , Srijit, who is an avid cricket fan, reveals how excited he is for his first sports film, and also opened up on how he came on board the project. Excerpts:
How did you come on board 'Shabaash Mithu'? Well, Ajit Andhare and I were planning to do a sports film since a long time; right from the time when we were discussing doing a biopic on Sourav Ganguly. Then we collaborated on ‘Ray’. We almost came together to do a series on cricket too. Hence, when this offer finally came my way, I just lapped it up.
This will be your first sports film... I feel very excited about it! Stories in this genre were missing from my filmography. I’m also more excited because cricket is my first love, and I finally get to do something related to the game.
Have you done some prep work? Not really. I have always been a cricket buff and research a lot on the game. I have myself played cricket till university. So there was nothing to done except whatever goes into the usual pre-production of a film.
How do you think will Taapsee Pannu fit into Mithali Raj's role? Very smoothly! Taapsee is one of the finest actors we have in India today. She’s a very hungry actress and puts in her 100 per cent in whatever role she takes up. This is going to be something new for her too; she hasn’t done anything like this before. She’s going to do an absolutely brilliant job!
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