Telugu Actor & Badminton Champ Sudheer Babu To Play Pullela Gopichand

It’s raining  bio-pics in the Bollywood backyard. Even as Shradha Kapoor   to  play bandminton star Saina Nehwal  in a  bio-pic directed by Amole Gupte,  another  badminton biopic of ace badminton player, chief national coach of the Indian badminton team and Padma Shri awardee Pullela Gopichand is on  the way.

 The film to be produced jointly  by  Fox-Star Studios and Abundantia Entertainment, a bilingual biopic in Hindi and Telugu,  will chronicle the exciting journey of Pullela Gopichand, on and off the court. The scripting of the film is underway and the shoot will commence in mid-2018.

But the  biggest ace  up this bio-pic’s sleeve is  the authentic casting. The  makers  of the Pullela  Gopichand bio-pic have  decided to cast Telugu actor  Sudheer Babu who  made his Bollywood debut as the arch-villain in Sabbir Khan’s Baaghi two  years ago.

 Sudheer Babu is not  only an actor who is culturally affiliated with Puellela, he is also a bandimton champ in his own right.

  “We were  very clear that we wanted an actor who would look unrehearsed while hitting the cork  across the net. We  didn’t want to fake it at all. When Fox-Star and Neeraj Pandey decided to cast Sushant Singh Rajput as M S Dhoni  , the actor didn’t have to  prepare  from the scratch , as Sushant was already a state-level cricketer.We were  very sure we didn’t want an actor to come on board to play Gopichand  and then take  a two-week crash  course in badminton,” says a source  close to the  the development, taking a  dig at Shradha Kapoor’s  infamous crash-course in Hyderabad to  play Nehwal.

Sudheer Babu, we are told, has already begun spending time with Gopichand, trying to assimilate  the coach’s  gaming tactics  into his own method of badminton-playing.

Sudheer who made a bludgeoning  impact with Baaghi is hoping to move to a more heroic  image  with this  sports  film .

Commenting on the biopic, Pullela Gopichand, said, “Badminton is at an inflection point in our country and nothing delights me more than to see the rapidly growing interest for the sport, especially with the youth. I would be proud if by sharing my story as a film, we can encourage more and more people to pursue their dreams. I am excited with the developments on the film and look forward to Vikram Malhotra of  Abundantia  and Fox Star taking this film to the masses.”