After the astounding success of Shimit Amin’s Chak De India, Bollywood seems to have taken a liking for movies based on field hockey. While there have been many movies based on cricket (India’s most popular sport), hockey has not featured a lot in Bollywood. This is going to change in the year 2015, with Bollywood planning not one or two but four movies based on hockey. Following are the upcoming movies which are based on field hockey:
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| Alia Bhatt to portray a role of hockey player in Udta Punjab |
Udta Punjab
The movie which focuses on drug abuse problem in Punjab has hockey as a major influence with actor Alia Bhatt playing a role of hockey player in the movie. Alia Bhatt recently posted a picture of a hockey stick on her Instagram page calling it her NEW BEST FRIEND. In order to prepare for the role, Alia Bhatt has been practicing hockey for two hours every day in Mumbai. The movie also stars other top Bollywood stars Shahid Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor and also features Punjabi singer/actor Diljit Dosanjh. The movie will be produced by Anurag Kashyap with the shooting for the movie expected to start this month.
Prithipal Singh
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| Prithipal Singh… A Story |
While Dhyan Chand and Balbir Singh might get all the laurels, Prithipal Singh who won three Olympics medals (2 Gold and 1 Bronze) is surely a forgotten man in Indian hockey. With sports biopic being the flavour of the season, a biopic on Prithipal Singh will be released in the year 2015. Deadliest penalty corner expert of his generation, full-back Prithipal Singh saw the best and worst days of Indian hockey. The story revolves around his playing career, his post retirement job as director of Youth Welfare in college and his death (he was shot dead by his students in 1983). Vikas Kumar who plays the role of Rajat in popular TV show CID will play the role of Prithipal Singh. The movie was made on a meagre budget of Rs. 1 crore and the movie won the award of ‘Best Feature Film’ in All Sports Los Angeles Film Festival.
Sandeep Singh
Another name joining the list of upcoming sports biopic is India’s ace penalty corner expert and Jaypee Punjab Warriors star Sandeep Singh. The movie will be based on his life as a hockey player and will focus on his struggles after being shot in the back accidentally when he was on his way to join Indian team to participate in 2006 World Cup in Germany. The incident saw Sandeep Singh nearly paralysed and was on wheelchair for two years. He faced many hardships (doctor said he could never play hockey again) in those two years but Sandeep defied the odds and made his comeback in the Indian team and helped India in qualifying for the London Olympics. Bollywood actor Chitrangada Singh has turned producer for the movie and it is rumoured that actor Ranbir Kapoor (Sandeep Singh’s favourite) will play the role of Sandeep Singh in the movie.
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| A biopic of Sandeep Singh to be produced by Chirtangda Singh |
Dhyan Chand
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| Dhyan Chand- Greatest Hockey Player Ever |
This is probably the biggest sports biopic to be ever made by the Bollywood. The biopic of hockey legend Dhyan Chand will be produced by Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions along with Aarti and Pooja Shetty’s WalkWater Media. Rohit Vaid who has an experience in directing TV shows for 23 years will direct the movie. Dhyan Chand is the greatest hockey players India has every produced, winning three Olympics Gold medals for India scoring over 1000 goals in the process. Such is the popularity of Dhyan Chand that he still was the top trend according to Google Trends despite his death in 1979. It is rumoured that the role of Dhyan Chand will be played by actor Shah Rukh Khan.
