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Coming soon: A biopic on Gopi’s flight to success
HYDERABAD: Along with PV Sindhu, another person whose stature has grown phenomenally is her coach, Pullela Gopichand.
HYDERABAD: Along with PV Sindhu, another person whose stature has grown phenomenally is her coach, Pullela Gopichand.
The persona of Gopi — as he is better known in the badminton circuit — is set to get bigger with a Hindi-Telugu biopic being planned on the 2001 All England champion. Producer Abhisek Nama believes Gopi’s exploits will be a huge hit on celluloid.
“Gopichand’s life, the early struggle, his love story, the injury that almost finished his career and his (All England) win, which changed the face of Indian badminton,… It is a story waiting to be told,” says Nama.
To be directed by national award-winning director Praveen Sattaru, the film ‘Pullela Gopichand’ will be the first on an Indian badminton player, though Amole Gupte of ‘Stanley ka Dubba’ fame is also reportedly planning a film on Saina Nehwal.
The film is scheduled to be released in November and will be shot across Hyderabad, Lucknow, Bengaluru and Birmingham.
“We have been working on the script for 18 months. Gopi has cleared the script. Now, with (Sindhu’s) Olympics performance, the film will have more value,”’ says Nama.
Playing Gopi will be actor Sudheer Babu, a former badminton player who used to train with Gopi at the Prakash Padukone academy in Bengaluru in the late 90s.
“I do not need to prepare for this role because I have seen him from close quarters. I have played doubles with him,” says Babu.
Gopichand will not star in the movie, but students at his academy in Hyderabad are excited. “We all know what went into the making of Gopichand. It will depend on the skills of the filmmaker on how well he is able to convey what he went through,” says HS Prannoy.
